Tien Minh advances to Taiwan Open second round

Vietnam’s world No5 badminton player Nguyen Tien Minh defeated his host rival Chih Hsun Yang in the opening game of the 2013 Taiwan Open Grand Prix Gold on September 4. 

This was an easy match for Minh as his underdog opponent had comparatively little international experience, never having ever reached the top one hundred world rankings.  

This advantage was evident in the first few minutes when he soon took the lead 4-1 raising enthusiastic cheers from the home crowd. Yang attempted to narrow the gap to 4-5, then 5-6. However, Minh scored 8 consecutive points to lead 14-5.

The Vietnamese player added seven points in the final minutes to finish the first set with a score of 21-8.

Minh continued to show off his professional skills, outplaying his Taiwanese rival with the same score in the second set.

Minh became the first player to secure a place in the second round of the tournament.

His next rivals will be Sheng-Jie Yang (Taiwan, world No 337) who knocked out Tam Chun Hei (Hong Kong, world No 214) in the first round.