Vietnamese athletes will head to the next rounds of the SKYCITY New Zealand Open badminton tournament in Auckland City.

Nguyen Tien Minh

Nguyen Tien Minh defeated Chee Foong Lim of the host team 21-8, 21-5 in only 19 minutes in the men’s singles category.

The No 9 seed will next meet Vincent Tong, another Kiwi, in the second round.

The only female representative of Việt Nam Vũ Thị Trang will start her campaign today by playing Vicki Copeland of New Zealand in the women’s singles event.

Trang is world No 46 while Copeland is No 257.

In the men’s doubles event, Minh Bảo and Dương Bảo Đức won two matches yesterday.

They beat Kiwi pair Edward Lau and Edwin Chaijing Lau 21-4, 21-16 in the first match before walked over in the second where their host rivals Jack Boyle and Christopher Steeghs withdrew.

Their next opponents will be He Jiting and Tan Qiang of China.

The New Zealand Open, which is an event of the Grand Prix Gold, will close on Sunday with US$120,000 delivered to the winners.

VNS