VietNamNet Bridge – Top Vietnamese badminton player Nguyen Tien Minh beat Indian P Kasyap 24-22, 17-21, 22-20 to qualify for the men's singles third round at Yonex Badminton World Federation (BWF) Championship in London, England, last night.

Minh, the world's 7th seed, struggled one hour and 21 minutes to finish the match in three sets in the second round at Wembley Arena.

He meets Thailand's Boonsak Ponsana in the third round tonight.

In the first set, the HCM City-native scored nine smash winners and two game points to edge out the Indian 24-22.

However, Kasyap fought back to win 21-17 and equalised the match after the second set.

But Minh showed off his power in the third decisive set when he completed the game with 22-20 win.

Last month, the 28-year-old, who became the first Vietnamese Olympian badminton player at the Beijing Games in 2008, finished second in the US Open Grand Prix Gold after losing Japanese Sho Sasaki.

In 2009, he recorded a shocking victory against world No 1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia in the Aviva Singapore Super Series.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News