Badminton

Nguyễn Thuỳ Linh is one of the Vietnamese athletes to compete at the Badminton Asia Championship in Dubai, the UAE. — Photo courtesy of Nguyễn Thùy Linh

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam will send some of its strongest athletes to compete at the Badminton Asia Championship from April 25-30 at the Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Indoor Hall in Dubai, the UAE.

National No. 1 female player Nguyễn Thuỳ Linh advanced to the women's singles main draw after her two rivals in the qualification's Group A withdrew on April 25.

Linh will play Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand in the first match on April 26.

Linh is sitting at No. 35 in the world. She has been at her peak performance, advancing to the finals of the Thailand Challenge and Ciputra Hà Nội International Challenge in March. She won the latter on home ground.

Ongbamrungphan is higher than Linh in the rankings as she is at No. 13.

On the men's side, Vietnamese representative Nguyễn Hải Đăng will play in the main draw where he will meet tough rival Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei, who is the tournament No. 5.

In other categories, Nguyễn Đình Hoàng and Trần Đình Mạnh won two matches in the qualification's Group A of the men's doubles. They will face Chinese Taipei's Lee Jhe-Huei and Yang Po-hsuan in the main round.

Phạm Văn Hải and Thân Vân Anh went through to the main round of the mixed doubles event, facing Thai pair Ruttanapak Oupthong and Jhenicha Sudjaipraparat.

Đinh Thị Phương Hồng and Phạm Thị Khánh failed to find their main round slot as they placed second in the qualification's Group D of the women's doubles.

The championship features around 300 of the best players from 28 countries and territories fighting for continental crowns along with the BWF world ranking points. Top seeds in each category are Indonesians Jonatan Christie and Anthony Ginting and defending champion Lee Zii Jia (men’s singles); Akane Yamaguchi of Japan, An Se-young of South Korea, and Chen Yu Fei, the reigning champion from China (women’s singles).

Men’s doubles title favourites are from Indonesia, Malaysia and Japan. Women’s doubles top candidates are from China, Japan and South Korea. Meanwhile, mixed doubles top seeds are Chinese and Japanese athletes.

Of the total bonus of US$400,000, the singles winners will take $30,000 while the doubles champion will enjoy $31,600.

Last year, Linh was ousted from the first round while her male teammate Nguyễn Tiến Minh was defeated in the second round. — VNS