No 10 seed Nguyen Tien Minh, Viet Nam's premiere shuttler, was ousted from the K&D Graphics/Yonex Grand Prix yesterday in California.

Nguyen Tien Minh.

In the first main round of the men's singles Minh lost 13-21, 12-21 to Japan's unseeded Kanta Tsuneyama in only 35 minutes.

Earlier his badminton teammate, Pham Cao Cuong, was also defeated by No 4 seed Hsu Jen Hao of Chinese Taipei 21-16, 21-15.

Viet Nam men's doubles team, Minh Bao and Duong Bao Duc, passed their qualification with two wins.

They will go on to play the American and Indonesian pair, Ryan Chew and Fran Kurniawan.

Vu Thi Trang will start play tomorrow against Shuo Yun Sung of Chinese Taipei in the women's singles.

Vietnamese teammates Duc and Thai Thi Hong Gam will play No 5 seed pair Phillip Chew and Jamie Subandhi of the US in the mixed doubles event.

VNS