LookAtVietnam – Viet Nam’s Olympian Nguyen Tien Minh went through to the quarters of the Japan Super Series in Tokyo yesterday, Sept 23.

Viet Nam’s Olympian Nguyen Tien Minh went through to the quarters of the Japan Super Series in Tokyo yesterday, Sept 23.

Hometown hero: Viet Nam’s Nguyen Tien Minh returns the shuttlecock to Jan Jorgensen of Denmark during their second round match at the Japan Open badminton tournament in Tokyo yesterday. — AFP/VNA Photo

Minh, who is seeded No 7 for the tournament, defeated Jan Jorgensen of Denmark 21-11, 22-20 in the men’s singles. He will next play Peter Hoeg Gade, also from Denmark.

Gade, who beat Takuma Ueda of Japan 21-3, 17-21, 21-12, is seeded No 2.

Minh, who had to work hard in his first-round match again Hong Kong’s Yan Kit Chan, convincingly outclassed Jorgensen for most of the match, but a series of unforced errors in the second set allowed the Dane to level the score at 20-all. Fortunately, Minh rediscovered his form – with the help of his Indonesian coach – to take the set.

Meanwhile, world No 1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia easily beat Kenichi Tago of Japan 21-10, 21-10 in the third-round.

Defending champion China’s Bao Chunlai earned a quarter-final place against Lee after defeating Kazushi Yamada of Japan 21-13, 21-13.

Earlier in the day, three-time former world champion Lin Dan of China beat Hu Yun of Hong Kong 21-17, 21-14.

Lin, 26, reduced his workload this season to boost his physical fitness. Even so, he won the Asian championships in April and the China Masters last weekend.

In the quarter-finals today, Lin will take on Park Sung-hwan of South Korea, who defeated Sho Sasaki of Japan 21-12, 21-15.

On the women’s side, title candidate Hongyan Pi of France was beaten 6-21, 11-21 by China’s 2002 world junior champion Jiang Yanjiao.

Other seeds who played yesterday included Tina Baun of Denmark, No 4; Wang Shixian of China, No 3; and Japan’s Eriko Hirose, No 7. All went through to the next round.

Baun, who claimed her first tour title at the 2007 Japan Open under her maiden name of Rasmussen, struggled against Yip Pui-yin of Hong Kong. She finally took the match 21-16, 14-21, 21-16.

Meanwhile, Hirose whipped Petya Nedelcheva of Bulgaria 21-19, 21-18, while Wang trounced Thai Porntip Buranaprasertsuk 23-21, 21-15.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News