Vietnam’s top badminton player Nguyen Tien Minh has climbed one more place to seventh in the Badminton World Federation’s rankings released Thursday.

He replaced Thailand’s number one player Poonsak Ponsana in the seventh spot as Ponsana was swept aside in the first round of the Tokyo tournament by the world’s number one Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia.

The only Vietnamese badminton player to enter the world’s top one hundred had climbed from ninth to eighth last week.

Minh qualified for the Super Series in England and Switzerland last year, but bowed out after the first round at both events.

However, his ranking moved from 38th to 33rd after the events, initiating his dramatic climb to 15th by the end of the year.

Reported by Huu Tho