Vietnam’s world No5 badminton player Nguyen Tien Minh has flown to Taipei in his quest for the 2013 Taiwan Open Grand Prix Gold title for the third time.
After his unsuccessful performance at the recent Indian Badminton League, Minh only had several days off for the Taiwanese tournament, and his tasks is to defend his championship title.
If so, he will go down in history of the tournament as the first player to secure the title for the third time.
None of the players has won Taiwan Open Grand Prix Gold three times since the tournament was started in 1991.
Tien Minh, Denmark’s Peter Gade and Indonesia’s Simon Santoso became the champions twice while China’s Lin Dan and Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei took the trophy once.
It will be a great advantage for Tien Minh as none of the top 20 players has registered to compete in the tournament.
Minh is scheduled to play host underdog rival Chih Hsung Yang who is ranked 147th in the world in the opening game.