Nguyen Tien Minh, Vietnam’s top badminton player and the top seed of the Yonex Sunrise Vietnam Open, defeated his Malaysian rival - Mohammad Arif Abdul Latif 2-0, to enter the quarter-final round on the evening of August 23.

 Tien Minh played very well in his third game, which finished after only 27 minutes, with 21/14 and 21/7 scores for two sets.

In the quarter-finals, Minh will face Japan’s unseeded Kento Momota, who ranks 135th in the International Badminton Federation’s rankings. Previously, Kento Momota defeated India’s Sourabh Varma, the world’s 40th player, with 2/1 score.

This is the third win of Tien Minh, the current champion, at this tournament.

Second seed Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka of Indonesia needed three sets to beat Malaysia’s Wei Sheng Loh to earn a place in the quarter-finals.

Fourth seed Alamsyah Yunus and fifth seed Sony Dwi Kuncoro also made it through to the last eight where they will face each other.

Sixth seed Takuma Ueda booked his quarter-final spot with a hard-fought win over India’s Pranny H.S.

In women’s singles, top seed Porntip Buranaprasertuk of Thailand booked a place in the quarter-finals where she will face eighth seed Aprilla Yuswandari of Indonesia.

More than 320 players from 28 countries and territories are competing for a total of US$50,000 bonus, with the winner in the singles events receiving $3,750 and in the double events $3,950.

The finals are scheduled on August 26.

In related news, Tien Minh dropped three places in the International Badminton Federation’s rankings which was made public last week.

The decline to 14th place follows a poor performance at the London Olympic Games where he was eliminated in the group stages with one win and one loss.

It is the 29-year-old's lowest rank in the last three years. He had achieved a high of sixth place in July 2010.

(Vietnamnet)