Nguyen Tien Minh of Vietnam, seeded two, struggled to beat Guo Kai
21-19, 22-20 in the third round of the Yonex Australian Badminton Open
on April 4 in Sydney.
Minh, world No 9, found it hard to
contend against the non-seeded player, who came from China , one of
the world’s badminton centres.
The Vietnamese player was
behind throughout the first set but came up to win in the last four
points. The second set seemed more equal for both sides, with both
taking turns in the lead. Senior Minh took advantage of his
international experience to secure the last two points against his
rival, ranked 284 th in the world.
In the quarter-final
round on April 5, Minh will face Chinese qualifier Xue Song, who made a
big splash by defeating Indonesian legend Taufik Hydayat, seeded six,
21-9,21-13 on April 4.-VNA