VietNamNet Bridge – To Vietnamese badminton player Nguyen Tien Minh will compete against world No 3 Chen Long from China in the second round of the England Open Badminton Championships today, March 9.

The 29-year-old defeated the Chinese player 21-15, 21-12 at the Thomas&Uber Cup Preliminary Asia Zone event in Macau in February.

In the first round, Minh overwhelmed Hong Kong's Yun Hu 21-12, 21-18 while Long progressed to the next round after Indonesia's Tommy Sugiarto retired due to injury.

Tien Minh loses in All England

Nguyen Tien Minh failed in his quest for a repeat victory over world No 3 Chen Long of China with a 19-21, 21-9, 21-16 loss in the second round of the YONEX All England Open Badminton Championships yesterday in Birmingham.

Last month Minh defeated Chen 21-15, 21-12 in the Thomas and Uber Cup qualifier for the Asian zone in Macau.

In a turn of events yesterday, he was only able to take the first set before being eliminated in 76 minutes.

With the loss, Minh fell one step in the world rankings to No 10, according to the latest Badminton World Federation announcement.

Last year, Minh made it to the quarter-finals before being sent home by world No 2 and Olympic champion Lin Dan, also of China.

His next event is the Swiss Open from March 13-18 in Basel.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News