Minh battles to quarters at Grand Prix
HCM CITY — World No 8 Nguyen Tien Minh came from one set down to overcome Malaysia's Hashim Mohammad Hafiz in the third round at the Yonex-Sunrise Malaysia Open Grand Prix Gold.
The Vietnamese badminton ace yesterday had to battle against the unseeded Hashim, who surrendered after three sets in a 50 minute-long match.
After losing the first set 21-19, Minh recovered to win the second set 21-18 and levelled the match at 1-1.
In the third and last set, Minh quickly took control of the game and went on to win 21-6.
Minh will face Indonesia's unseeded Kuncoro Sony Dwi in the quarter-finals. Minh has only met Kuncoro once at the Djarum Indonesia Open Super Series 2007, where Minh lost to Kuncoro in three sets.
If he is able to make it to the semi-finals, Minh could run into the Chinese seventh seed and a tough Bao Chunlai, who cruised into the quarter-finals after making light work of three previous rounds.
Previously, in the second round, Minh took his revenge on Yuekun Chen, who beat Minh in the quarter-finals at the Viet Nam Open 2010. Minh easily beat Yuekun 21-12, 21-13 in 32 minutes.
In the first round, Minh needed three sets to beat Pawar Anand of India 10-21, 21-7, 21-16 after completing the first set. — VNS