VietNamNet Bridge – National badminton ace Nguyen Tien Minh brushed aside Khadum Jabar Ali of Iraq 21-4, 21-8 in just 21 minutes to enter the third round of the Badminton Asia Championships in Chengdu, China yesterday, April 20.

He will face Japan's Keigo Sonoda, who needed three sets to defeat 14th seed Hsuan Yi Hsueh of Chinese Taipei. Minh seems determined to justify his fourth-seed ranking in the tournament. It is very likely that he will reach the quarter-finals, where he will face his real challenge, against Chinese sixth-seeded Pengyu Du or Malaysian Darren Liew.

If he is able to make it to the semi-finals, Minh could face Chinese top-seed Lin Dan, who also cruised into the third round after making light work of two previous rounds. Meanwhile, Bui Bang Duc and Dao Manh Thang reached the men's doubles' second round after overcoming Indian pair Attri Manu and Sanyal Jishnu in three sets, 25-23, 14-21, 21-14.

However, the chances for the Hanoian duo to go farther in the tournament are not very high, as they will have to face Indonesia's fourth-seeded pair and world number nine, Alvent Yulianto Chandra and Hendra Aprida Gunawan.Viet Nam has no representatives left in the mixed doubles, women's doubles and women's singles events because the players either failed to qualify or were eliminated in the first round.

While Viet Nam has sent 12 players to the tournament to compete in all categories, the nation's hopes rest solely on Minh, who is currently ranked seventh in the world. In fact, he is the only Vietnamese badminton player so far to figure in list of top 100 players in the world.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News