HCM City’s Phan Dinh Phung sports house blew up on the evening of August 26 when Vietnam’s top badminton player Nguyen Tien Minh beat Japanese rival Takuma Ueda 21-14 and 21-19 in the men’s singles final of the Yonex Sunrise Vietnam Open. This is the fourth title Minh has claimed so far, the other three were won in 2008, 2009 and 2011. This is also Minh’s first championship in 2012. Minh received $3,750 bonus for the title and VND20 million ($1,000) from Robot Company’s General Director Nguyen Phuong Nam who is also Chairman of HCM City Badminton Federation. In the final match on August 26, all 2,000 seats at the Phan Dinh Phung sports house were occupied. Former Prime Minister Nguyen Van Khai also attended the game. They expected Minh to defeat Takuma Ueda, the 35th player in the world and the 6th seed of the tournament. Minh did not betray his fans when trounced his Japanese rival 2-0 within 50 minutes to win the championship. “Today I did not play as good as I did in the semi-final. The second set was difficult for me. However, the audience’s warm support gave more strength to me to overcome my difficult time to win the championship title,” Minh said after the game. To enter the finals, Minh had five wins, all with 2-0 score. The semi-final match against Indonesia’s Sony Dwi Kuncoro, the worl’s 28th player, was the most difficult. Minh said this championship title is very meaningful because this time he defeated Kuncoro, who recently triumphed over world number one player Lindan. This year Minh did not play well when he failed at most tournaments. At the London 2012 Olympics last month, he crashed out in the group stage. Minh recently fell to the 14th position in the world rankings. He is preparing for the Japan Open tournament. Thai and Indonesian players dominated other events, winning two out of four remaining titles each. In the women’s singles, top seed Porntip Buranaprasetuk of Thailand won first prize after beating unseeded Lindaweni Fanetri of Indonesia 21-10, 21-18 in the final. Thai pair Bodin Issara and Memeepong Jongjit overcame their Indonesian opponents Yohanes Shendy Sugiarto and Afiat Yuris Wirawan 19-21, 21-16 and 21-11 in the men’s doubles. Indonesia duo Pia Zabadiah Bernadeth and Rizki Amelia Pradipta defeated Malaysia’s Hui Ern Ng and Hui Lin Ng to win the women’s doubles. Vietnamnet/ Compiled by S. Tung