Minh advances to Australian Open
Nguyen Tien Minh won a quarter-final round berth at the Yonex Australian Open Grand Prix Gold in Sydney yesterday.
The No 4 seed had to work hard to defeat Kwong Beng Chan of Malaysia 18-21, 21-18, 21-12 in 75 minutes. Unseeded Kwong made a bang when he sent home No 13 Kashyap Parupalli of India in the second round on Tuesday.
Minh's next rival will be Indonesian Alamsyah Yunus who is ranked No 15 here. Yunus yesterday won 21-19, 21-17 over Ji Hoon Hong of South Korea.
After the loss of pair Bui Bang Duc and Dao Manh Thang to Thailand rivals, Minh remains the only representative from Viet Nam.
The tournament, with US$120,000 in prize money, the highest of any event played in the Oceania region, and 7,000 points to improve world rankings, will wrap up on Sunday.-VNS