Badminton

Nguyễn Thùy Linh of Việt Nam advances to the second round of the Yonex-Sunrise - Vietnam Open badminton tournament in HCM City on September 28. Photo www.baodongnai.com.vn

HCM CITY  Vietnamese athletes reached the second round of the Yonex-Sunrise - Vietnam Open badminton tournament in HCM City on September 28.

National No. 1 Nguyễn Thùy Linh met no difficulty in beating her junior teammate Nguyễn Thị Diệu Linh 21-12, 21-15 in the women's singles first round match at Nguyễn Du Gymnasium.

The No. 6 seed will next play Ng Tin Yan of Hong Kong, who defeated Indian Samayara Panwar 21-19, 21-14.

Vũ Thị Anh Thư also went to the second round after beating Vietnamese Lê Ngọc Vân 19-21, 21-14, 21-11. She will face Malaysian Kasturi Radhakrishnan, a walkover.

Olympian Vũ Thị Trang won 21-18, 21-4 over Indonesian rising star Dhea Bunga Anjani to advance to the next round.

She will next play walkover Gadde Ruthvika Shivani of India.

Trần Thị Phương Thúy came from behind to beat Hong Kong representative Sum Yee Yeung 16-21, 21-14, 21-19 to set up a match against Indian Rituparna Das.

In other matches, No. 1 seed Aya Ohori of Japan won 21-12, 21-16 against Aashi Rawat of India.

No. 4 Ruselli Hartawan of Indonesia beat Fuyu Iwasaki 21-16, 21-15.

On the men's side, four-time Olympian Nguyễn Tiến Minh of the host was ousted in the first round, losing 21-18, 21-18 to China's Sun Fei Xiang.

National champion Lê Đức Phát was also eliminated by Malaysian Sholeh Aidil in a 18-21, 21-18, 21-11 match.

Trần Lê Mạnh An of Việt Nam at the Việt Nam Open. Photo www.baodongnai.com.vn

Young qualifier Trần Lê Mạnh An was lucky enter the third round on September 29 after his No. 1 seed Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan withdrew. Earlier, his Indian rival Rahul Yadav Chittaboina also retired when An won the first set 21-15. 

Nguyễn Hải Đăng was the second Vietnamese left at the tournament.

He beat Thai Korakrit Laotrakul 21-13, 21-15 in the second round after earning a bye in the first round.

Đăng will next play No. 6 seed Weng Hong Yang of China.

Elsewhere, Japanese Kodai Naraoka, No. 3 seed, won 21-13, 21-6 over Chan Yin Chak of Hong Kong. No. 4 Tommy Sugiato of Indonesia lost 14-21, 22-20, 21-12 to unseeded Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian of India. Jia Heng Jason Teh of Singapore was given a 3-0 win after No. 7 Soong Joo Ven of Malaysia retired. And No. 2 SAI Praneeth was ousted after losing 17-21, 21-18, 21-13 to Rithvik Sanjeevi Satish Kumar in an all-India match.

The Việt Nam Open is one of the Badminton World Federation's Super 100 Tour events. It lures about 200 participants who vie for titles in five categories of men's and women's singles, doubles, and mixed doubles, for a total purse of US$75,000.

The finals are scheduled on October 2. VNS