Vietnam will have representatives in the main round of the singles and doubles events of the Badminton Asia Championship, which will start today in Wuhan, China.

Nguyen Tien Minh is one of Vietnamese athletes at the Badminton Asia Championship in China. 

Top national player Nguyen Tien Minh is the only Vietnamese to compete in the men’s singles. He will play No. 3 seed Son Wan Ho of the Republic of Korea in the first-round match.

The two have met six times and their results were 3-3. However, Minh, 34, is now No. 53 in the world, while Son, 28, sits at No. 4.

In the women’s singles, Vu Thi Trang will play Indonesian Fitriani Fitriani. Trang has defeated her rival 21-19, 16-21, 21-16 at the Ciputra Hanoi-Yonex Sunrise Vietnam International Challenge two years ago.

Her teammate Nguyen Thuy Linh will face the biggest challenge in the first round, when she plays No. 1 seed Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei.

In the men’s doubles, Do Tuan Duc and Pham Hong Nam will see Mohammad Ahsan and Rian Agung Saputro of Indonesia.

In the women’s doubles, Nguyen Thi Sen and Trang will face the Japanese duo of Shiho Tanaka and Koharu Yonemoto.

In the mixed doubles, Pham Nhu Thao and Duc will play No. 7 seed Zhang Nan and Li Yinhui of China. Le Thu Huyen and Nam will compete against No. 5 seed Praveen Jordan and Debby Susanto of Indonesia.

The championship carrying a prize money of US$325,000 will conclude on April 30.

VNS