Local top female player Vu Thi Trang lived up to expectations,
overcoming Susanto Yulia Yosephin of Indonesia in the women’s singles
first-round match in three sets (17-2121-1521-16), sealing a place in
the second round of the Vietnam Open badminton tournament.
Trang,
who made history for the country last week by becoming the first female
player to reach the third round at a World Badminton Championship, is
yet to recover from jet lag, which saw her drop the first set 17-21.
The
Bac Giang-born girl, however, rallied to claim the two later sets to
become the only Vietnamese female player remaining in the tournament
with a place in the second round, where she faces sixth seed Yang Li
Lian of Malaysia on September 5 at Tan Binh Indoor Stadium.
“I am
not happy with my performance today because I made too many mistakes,
especially in the third set,” Trang told Vietnam News after the match.
There
were few surprises at the top end of the draw, with most top seeds
advancing to the next round of the women’s singles event. Top seed Hsu
Ya Ching of Chinese Taipei, third seed Maria Febe Kusumastuti of
Indonesia and eighth Iris Wang of Malaysia all came out on top in their
first-round matches.
In the men’s singles event, third seed
Nguyen Tien Minh continued proving his credentials by brushing aside Nur
Mohd Azriyn Ayub of Malaysia in straights set to book a place in the
quarter-finals, where he encountered Ka Long Ng of Hong Kong, China.
Azriyn
launched a fierce attack on Minh’s back hand wing, catching him off
guard and awarding Azriyn an 11-8 scoreboard at the break.
The
Malaysian player’s game soon dissolved with Minh diverting shots with
powerful smashes to notch a 21-10 win in the first set.
Minh’s momentum continued into the second set blasting a bewildered Ariyn into a convincing 21-13 win.
Mohammad
Arif Abdul Latif of Malaysia also reached the quarter-finals after
beating Ajay Jayaram 22-20, 21-16 in the third round while the fifth
seed Prannoy H.S. also occupied a place in the final eight.
In
the women’s doubles event, Trang paired with Nguyen Thi Sen to beat
Indonesian duo Meiliana Jauhari and Aprilsasi Putri Lejarasa Variella
22-20, 23-21 to become the only Vietnamese duo in the category.
However, pairings from Thailand and Indonesia looked poised to go all the way to the finals.
Indonesian
players dominated the mixed doubles event with all quarter-final
matches being all-Indonesian affairs or having at least one pair from
the archipelago nation and are expected to sweep the podium places.
Top-seeded
Indonesian pair Muhammad Rijal and Vita Marissa will face off against
their compatriots: eighth-seeded Yonathan Suryatama Dasuki and Aprilsasi
Putri Lejarsar Variella.- VNA