Vietnam’s Nguyen Tien Minh advanced to the second round of the 2015 Chinese Taipei Masters Grand Prix badminton tournament after beating host player, Yang Chih Hsun 2-0 (21/16, 21/17) in their round-one meeting on October 14.

Yang, ranked 1,084th in the world, had been expected to pose little threat to Tien Minh, who was named top seed of the men’s singles event as the world’s no. 35 player.

Contrary to prediction, Yang, 24, took advantage of his youthful strength to challenge the Vietnamese star and retain an even score throughout most of the match.

In set one, Yang equalised the game 6/6 before narrowing the score to 16/17. However, Minh proved his wealth of experience, scoring four consecutive points to claim the set 21/16.

Set-two continued to see Yang’s strong resistance. After the Taipei youngster leveled the score 17/17, Tien Minh took control scoring four points in a row to seal an aggregate 21/17 win.

Next up for Tien Minh will be a second-round clash with Indonesia’s Simon Santoso, who overcame Lee Hock Lai of the US with a score of 2-0 (21/10, 21/12) in another match this morning.

Vietnamese female player, Vu Thi Trang will also enter the first round of the women’s singles discipline this afternoon as no. 5 seed. Trang’s round-one opponent will be Lyanny Alessandra Mainaky of Indonesia.

The 2015 Chinese Taipei Grand Prix is taking place from October 13 to 18, offering US$50,000 in total prize money. As top seed of the men’s singles, Vietnam’s Tien Minh is looking towards the second international title of the year, following the first one secured at the 2015 Sydney International Challenge last month.

Nhan Dan