VietNamNet Bridge – Viet Nam's top badminton player Nguyen Tien Minh secured his berth in the quarter-final round of the US Open Grand Prix Gold after defeating Kashyap Parupalli yesterday, July 14, in California.

It was the second consecutive time Minh beat Parupalli. The two met previously at Guangzhou's Asian Games last November when Minh won 21-14, 22-20.

Minh, who is the last member of his Vietnamese team left standing, will face Bao Chunlai of China in the quarter-final round. Their matches have been numerous and Minh has never before beaten Bao, who is the former world No 2 and is ranked fifth in this tournament.

Earlier, Vietnamese duo Nguyen Hoang Nam and Tran Thanh Hai lost 11-21, 13-21 to Germans Ingo Kindervater and Johannes Schoettler, while another pair, Bui Bang Duc and Dao Manh Thang, were defeated 5-21, 8-21 by Hiroyuki Endo and Kenichi Hayakawa of Japan.

The tournament will conclude tomorrow when the winners walk away with a total bonus of US$120,000.