Badminton ace Nguyen Tien Minh beat Keigo Sonoda of Japan, 21-17, 21-13 in the
third round of the Badminton Asia Championships in China’s Chengdu City
yesterday, April 21.

Nguyen Tien Minh.

Fourth-seeded Minh
needed just 32 minutes to see off the young Japanese player, dominating the game
for most part except in the first set when he allowed Sonoda to restore parity
at 17-17 after trailing 9-15. But the Vietnamese ace reeled of four consecutive
points to take the first set in 15 minutes.

In the quarter-finals,
Minh will face his first real challenge against China’s sixth-seeded Du Pengyu,
who went through a tense three-setter against unseeded Darren Liew of Malaysia
in the third round.

In spite of beating Du
in both their previous meetings – the Yonex All England Open Badminton
Championships 2011 and 2010 Korean Super Series - Minh is expected to have his
work cut out for him this time.

If he is able to make
it to the semi-finals, Minh could run into Chinese top-seed Lin Dan, who cruised
into the quarterfinals after making light work of three previous rounds.

In the men’s doubles,
Vietnamese duo Bui Bang Duc and Dao Manh Thang bowed out of the tournament after
losing in two sets to the Indonesia pair, Alvent Yulianto Chandra and Hendra
Aprida Gunawan.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News