Nguyen Tien Minh earned a ticket to compete in the quarterfinals of the 2017 Yonex US Open Badminton Championships at the Anaheim Convention Centre Arena today.
Viet Nam’s No 1 player Minh, who is world No 66, came from behind to defeat world No 35 Pablo Abian of Spain in the third round 19-21, 21-19, 21-11 in one hour and 17 minutes.
HCM City-born Minh will meet Jeon Hyeok Jin of South Korea, world No 40, in the quarterfinals.
Earlier, Minh crushed Sam Parsons of England, world No 86, 23-21, 21-13 in the first round. Then he bested Indian Harsheel Dani, world No 102, 27-25, 21-9.
“I am very glad to reach the quarterfinals of a tournament that is part of the BWF Grand Prix Gold Series,” Minh said after the match.
The event attracted popular players including 2016 US Olympians Jamie Subandhi, Sattawat Pongnairat, Howard Shu, and Phillip Chew, as well as some of the world’s greatest badminton players such as Beiwen Zhang, Lee Hyun-Il, Michelle Li and legendary player Tony Gunawan.
The event, which has prize money of US$120,000, will end on July 23.
Following this event, Minh will compete in the Southeast Asian Games to be held in Malaysia next month. He is Vietnamese badminton’s main hope for a medal at the Games.
VNS