VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese badminton ace Nguyen Tien Minh easily brushed aside unseeded Indonesian Rhustavito Shesar Hiren 21-12, 21-8 in the first round of the Yonex Sunrise Viet Nam Grand Prix Open.

Nguyen Tien Minh.
In the second round, top-seeded Minh will face unseeded Chinese Taipei's Hsuan Lin Chia, who beat Zainuddin Iskandar Zulkarnain of Malaysia 23-21, 15-21, 21-15.

Minh, ranked seventh in the world, is expected to face tougher matches only from the quarter-final stage onwards where he could face 14th-seeded Sonoda Keigo of Japan and set up potential clashes with Chan Yan Kit of Hong Kong or Daren Liew of Malaysia in the semi-finals.

However, the biggest obstacle in his way to the title this year is second-seed Sho Sasaki of Japan, who has a good head-to-head record against Minh.

Sasaki beat Minh two times in the two most recent games at the July's Yonex OCBC US Open Grand Prix Gold in the final and at the Yonex Australia Open Grand Prix Gold's quarter-finals earlier this year.

In another match, Vietnamese Nguyen Hoang Nam was eliminated from the tournament after losing 17-21, 19-21 to Malaysian Misbun Ramdan Mohmed Misbun.

Viet Nam still have four other rivals competing in the first round of the men's singles event.

On the women's side, Vu Thi Trang, the only Vietnamese player in the main draw after being promoted from the qualifiers, will open her campaign today with a game against unseeded American Wang Iris.

Earlier, No 1 Ratchanok Inthanon of Thailand quit the tournament without a reason just one day before the opening ceremony on Monday.

Youth Olympic champion Inthanon is world No 12 and was scheduled to defend her Viet Nam Open title.

Her withdrawal will be noted by the Badminton World Federation and the Thai is likely to receive a fine because the rules state a player must give notice to quit 15 days ahead of the competition.

In the men's doubles, homeboys Dao Manh Thang and Bui Bang Duc will face difficulties in the very first round as they have to play against sixth-seeded Malaysian pair Goh Wei Shem and Lim Khim Wah.

Viet Nam's female pairing of Nguyen Thi Sen and Vu Thi Trang are hopeful of doing better in the tournament while the host nation's mixed double hopes rest on experienced duo Huynh Nguyen Khang and Thai Thi Hong Gam.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News