Vietnamese top badminton player Nguyen Tien Minh missed the chance to enter the final round of the 2017 Yonex US Open Badminton Championships at the Anaheim Convention Centre Arena on July 23.

Vietnamese top badminton player Nguyen Tien Minh. 

Minh, world No 66, was defeated 21-14, 21-19 by No 2 seed Prannoy Kumar of India, world No 23, in their semi-final match.

At the Indonesia Open last year, Kumar had beaten the world’s leading players Chen Long and Lei Chong Wei.

Earlier, Ho Chi Minh City-born Minh beat Jeon Hyeok Jin of the Republic of Korea, world No 40 and world No  35 Pablo Abian of Spain to reach the semi-finals. 

Vietnamese pair Do Duc Tuan and Pham Hong Nam were ousted in the quarter-finals of the men’s doubles category.

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 carries cash prizes of 120,000 USD.

VNA