VietNamNet Bridge – The Yonex -Sunrise Vietnam Open will take place from August 22 to 28, at Phan Dinh Phung sports house in HCM City, with 277 badminton players from 23 countries.

Tien Minh ranks 7th in world badminton ratings

The HCM City Badminton Federation introduced the event at a press conference on August 18. The tournament will gather 277 players from 23 countries that will compete in five categories: men’s single, women’s single, men’s doubles and women’s doubles and mixed doubles. The total bonus is $50,000.

The Chinese team will absent this year. Last year, Chinese players entered the finale of four out of five categories. Chinese player Yuekun Chen defeated incumbent champion Nguyen Tien Minh in the semi-finals and won the champion surprisingly.

At men’s single category, the event will have the participation of Sho Sasaki (world’s No. 12, Japan), Tommy Sugiarto (world’s No. 21, Indonesia), Alamsyah Yunus (world’s No. 30, Malaysia), Chan Yan Kit (world’s No. 40, Hong Kong) and Hsu Jen Hao (world’s No. 43, Taiwan).

Forty-two Vietnamese athletes will join the competition, including 25 male and 17 female players from, HCM City, Hanoi, Bac Giang, Dong Nai and the army’s team. The four players at the men’s single include Nguyen Tien Minh, Nguyen Hoang Nam, Le Ha Anh and Van Tuan Kiet.

Vietnam’s Tien Minh, the world’s No. 7 is the top seed of the tournament. Experts predict that Tien Minh will enter the final to face Japan’s Sho Sasaki, who just defeated Tien Minh at the finale of the US Open Grand Prix Gold for 2-0.

Of the total $50,000 of bonus, the champions of men’s single and women’s single categories will receive $3,750 each, the champions of men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles category will have $3,950 each.

Tickets are sold for VND30,000 for qualifier round and VND50,000 for semi-final and final matches.

Huynh Ngoc Lien, vice chairwoman of the HCM City Badminton Federation, said that there are 32 players for the men’s single category and 16 players for other categories.

PV