Vietnam’s top badminton player Nguyen Tien Minh beat Christian Lind Thomsen of Denmark in straight games in the first round of the Yonex Open Japan Super Series in Tokyo on Wednesday.

The world’s ninth-ranked singles player cruised to his 21-13, 21-9 victory over No. 55 Thomsen.

Next up for Minh is an encounter with Japan’s second best player, Sho Sasaki, who is ranked 24th in the world.

Minh can consider himself fortunate as world number two Chen Jin of China withdrew from the tournament in the final minutes, giving the Vietnamese star an easier run through the bottom half of the draw.

If the only Vietnamese player to get into the world’s top one hundred wins in round two, he will go on to play one of Sasaki’s compatriots, either number 69 Koichi Saeki or number 82 Kazuteru Kozai, for a berth in the semifinals on Saturday.

In the top half of the men’s singles draw, world number one Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia dispatched No. 11 Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand.

In other action, world number four Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia disposed of Yan Kit Chan of Hong Kong, ranked 12th in the world.

The top-flight tournament in the Japanese capital has a prize pool of US$200,000.

Reported by Nhut Quang