Vietnam's top badminton player Nguyen Tien Minh performed exceptionally well helping his team beat Switzerland 4-1 during their first clash on May 11 at the biennial world mixed team badminton championship, the Sudirman Cup 2015, in Guangdong, China.
Vietnam sent its best squad to the competition, featuring two prominent athletes, Vu Thi Trang (women's singles) and Nguyen Tien Minh (men's singles).
With such elite forces, Vietnam is expected to have a good result in Group 3B, grouping with Australia, Italy and Switzerland.
In their opening game, Vietnam began on a high note with a 4-1 win over Switzerland in a best-of-five format.
At the first men's doubles match, duo Le Ha Anh/Dao Manh Thang took only 23 minutes to beat Swiss pair Anthony Dumartheray/Oliver Schaller at 21-13, 21-15.
However, in the second game for women's singles, Vu Thi Trang disappointed home fans by losing 15-21, 12-21 to Sabrina Jaquet.
Entering the third clash for men's singles, Tien Minh showed his strength to beat Christian Kirchmayr 21-9, 21-8 in just 23 minutes.
Tien Minh's victory was the motivation for his teammates in the mixed doubles and women's doubles to secure the victory for Vietnam. Nguyen Thi Sen/Pham Nhu Thao beat Cendrine Hantz/Sabrina Jaquet 18-21, 21-15, 23-21 in the women's doubles while Duong Bao Duc/Thai Thi Hong Gam took down Celine Burkart/Oliver Schaller 19-21, 21-16, 21-17 in the mixed doubles to earn Vietnam a 4-1 win over Switzerland.
Vietnam’s badminton team will play their second game at this year’s Sudirman Cup against Italy on Tuesday.
The Sudirman Cup 2015 includes 35 teams, of which the top 12 will compete for the championship title and the 23 remaining teams will be divided into groups 2, 3 or 4 based on their previous performance to compete for group promotion.
Nhan Dan