VietNamNet Bridge – Viet Nam's Nguyen Tien Minh eased into the second round of the World Badminton Championship with a 21-10, 21-14 victory over Misha Zilberman of Isarel yesterday, Aug 9,  in London.
The Vietnamese who regrettably lost to Japanese Sho Sasaki in the final of the last month's US Open Grand Prix was at his peak at the Wembley Arena when facing with the world No 71 seed.

Minh who is the world's and tournament's No 7 needed only 34 minutes to book his second round berth where he will play the winner of the match between Indian Kashyap Parupalli and German Dieter Domke which played later yesterday.

Minh who is the sole representative of Viet Nam at the world tournament is expected to enter the quarter-final round for the first time after his failure in six previous attempts.

In other activities, China's Lin Dan also qualified for the second round of the after a 21-11, 21-10 success over Lithuanian Kestutis Navickas.

The Chinese suffered a surprise quarter-final exit in last year's tournament in Paris after three world titles in a row but looked in good shape against his world-ranked 40 opponent.

Lin's return of some heavy smashing coupled with sharp reflexes took him through in 34 minutes.

The victory avoided fresh Chinese embarrassment after the shock 21-19, 8-21, 27-25 defeat on Monday of fifth-seed Chen Long by Guatemalan outsider Kevin Cordon.

"It's the biggest win in my life by far," Cordon said. "Since March I have been training in Spain with the national team so that has been good. I can play more tournaments in Europe.

"To play against one of the top players in the first round is not a good draw but that is what you are training for. So I just said I will play my best game."

Lin, seeded two behind Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei, said: "Conditions in the hall are good and the drift and light are favourable for me. I feel comfortable here.

"I concentrated well and played well."

Wang Shixian, China's top seed in the women's singles, started her campaign with a comfortable 21-11, 21-14 victory over Bulgaria's Linda Zechiri.

There was more success for Ireland when Scott Evans beat Austria's Michael Lahnsteiner 21-15, 21-16 in the men's singles, following Chloe Magee's opening day win in the women's event.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News