The sole Vietnamese representative at the Yonex Sunrise Viet Nam Grand Prix Open, Nguyen Tien Minh, pocketed his berth in the men's singles semi-finals yesterday in HCM City.


Minh who is the tournament's top seed, easily defeated Malaysian Daren Liew, No 11, 21-16, 21-12 in 39 minutes.

He will next meet with Indian athlete Rajah Manuri Venkata Gurusaidutt in the semi-final round this afternoon.

No 12-ranked Gurusaidutt yesterday quickly won 21-14, 21-12 over Beng Hong Kuan, another Malaysian who was not seeded here.

Earlier, Japan's Sho Sasaki, chasing his third title of the year, met a lot of difficulties to reach the final four. The second seeded Japanese came from behind to beat seed No 8 Muhammad Hafiz Hashim 11-21, 22-20, 21-19, sending the third Malaysian rival home after more than one hour.

In the last quarter-final match, Indian Ajay Jayaram, No 5, won over Alamsyah Yunus, No 4, of Indonesia 15-21, 21-11, 21-15. Jayaram will take on Sho today in the second semi-final match.

On the women's side, third seed Tzu Ying Tai of Chinese Taipei continued her victory streak, beating Pusarla Venkata Sindhu from India 11-21, 21-11, 21-19 for her next round berth.

Tzu, at present, is the highest seed after No 1 Ratchanok Inthanon of Thailand quit one day before the opening ceremony on Monday and No 2 Sayaka Sato of Japan surprisingly lost on Thursday.

She will play Japanese Kaori Imabeppu in the semi-finals. Imabeppu yesterday snatched her win after a hard match against qualifier Arundhati Pantawane from Indian. Imabeppu won 18-21, 21-13, 21-12 in 63 minutes. The other semis will see South Korean Hye Youn Hwang clashing with Mingtian Fu from Singapore, who beat Aditi Mutatkar of India 18-21, 21-14, 21-17.

In the mixed doubles events, top-ranked duo Danny Bawa Chrisnanta and Yu Yan Vanessa Neo went on the next round after besting Zhao Jiang Terry Yeo and Dellis Yuliana 21-18, 21-12.

Pair Vitalij Durkin and Nina Vislova, ranked No 3, sent Fadhilah Irfan and Anggraini Weni home after a scored of 22-20, 21-11 in half hour. Eui Seok Chung and Hyun Young Yoo made a big bang when they defeated No 4 couple Arun Vishnu and Aparna Balan 21-19, 21-12 while Aik Quan Tan and Pei Jing Lai, No 8, ousted Riky Widianto and Shendy Puspa Irawati 21-10, 25-23.

VNS