Vietnamese mixed duo Le Ngoc Nguyen Nhung and Huynh Nguyen Khang advanced to play in the main round of the Yonex Sunrise Badminton Asia Championships.

Minh falls to No 1 seed in Yonex-Sunrise Asia tourney

Nguyen Tien Minh seeded 4th at India Open ‘09

Tien Minh back in world top ten badminton players

Nguyen Tien Minh.

The pair defeated Karuna Dinulsa and Chandrika de Silva of Sri Lanka 21-12, 17-21, 21-16 yesterday, April 13, in the second qualifier in New Dehli, India.

Later Nguyen Hoang Hai and Nguyen Thi Binh Tho beat Uddin Rais Md and Alina Sultana from Banglades 21-16, 21-5.

The duos will join two men’s doubles and two women’s doubles teams from Viet Nam in the main round. Viet Nam’s key player Nguyen Tien Minh who is seeded No 4 at the tournament will play the unknown Shao Wen Shu from Chinese Taipei, who is ranked No 259, in the men’s singles.

Minh, who is ranked seventh in the world, expects to meet Malaysian Muhammad Hafiz Hashim, who Minh both beat and lost to in 2009, next round.

If the Olympian makes it to the quarter-finals, he will likely to challenge Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand, who he defeated 2-1 at the Thailand Open last year.

The men’s singles draw will also feature Taufiq Hidayat, the 28-year-old Indonesian, who won the 2004 Olympic Games gold medal, the 2005 World Championships title and has three Asian crowns.

The 2007 Asian Junior Champion Chen Long will increase the intensity in the men’s competition.

HCM City-based Nguyen Hoang Nam and Nguyen Hoang Hai will also play in the men’s singles event. Nguyen Nhung is the only representative in the women’s singles event, after her teammates Tho and Phung Nguyen Phuong Nhi lost in the qualifying rounds.

Similarly in the women’s tournament, four of the world’s top 10 players will play at the event.

China mainland’s reigning world women’s singles champion Lu Lan, Hong Kong’s Zhou Mi and China’s Wang Shixian will also participate in the tournament. Indonesia’s Maria Kristin Yulianti, who won the bronze at the Olympic Games in 2008, will also compete.

The tournament will be held at the Siri Fort Badminton Stadium and will conclude on Sunday.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News