Poised for Prix: Local athlete Nguyen Tien Minh pocketed a ticket to the men's quarter-finals of the Viet Nam Open badminton tournament. The Olympian is expected to take the title. (Photo: VNS)

The Vietnamese world No 7 will face 11th-seeded Malaysian Daren Liew, who beat Misbun Ramdan Mohmed Misbun in the third round, in the quarter-finals.

He is expected to have a difficult game against the world No 57. At the 2009 tournament, Minh needed three sets 21-15, 18-21, 21-17 to beat Daren in the final.

Despite this, Minh's path to the final is not expected to produce any major hindrance as his half of the draw lacks top quality players.

After Daren, Minh's semi-final opponent could be Kuan Beng Hong of Malaysia or R. M. V. Gurusaidutt of India, players that are not expected to bother him a lot.

If there are no upsets, Minh will face Japan's Sho Sasaki who is taking part in the tournament for the first time.

Japanese Sho, seeded No 2 here, beat tough Indonesian player Sony Dwi Kuncuro 21-15, 21-10 in the third round later yesterday.

Left-handed Sho, world No 9, will potentially face Malaysian eighth-seeded Muhammad Hafiz Hashim, who is good at controlling the match with his height and skills, in the quarter-finals.

If he makes it through to the semi-finals, Sho will face last year's runner-up and experienced Nan Wei of Hong Kong or fifth-seeded Ajay Jayaram of India, who are both good players.

Vu Thi Trang, Viet Nam's only hope in the women's singles, failed to live up to fans' expectations after she was eliminated by Japan's Ayumi Mine in the second round, losing 21-19, 21-14.