Vietnam mixed pair Duong Bao Duc and Thai Thi Hong Gam were ousted yesterday from the ongoing World Badminton Championship in Paris.
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| Nguyen Tien Minh |
Despite earning a bye to the second round of the tournament, the Vietnamese duo could not take advantage of their good luck when faced by Hong Kong\'s Yohan Hadikusumo and Ying Suet Tse losing 9-21, 15-21.
The Hong Kong team on Monday pulled off a very early surprise when they sent No 11 seed Hirokatsu Hashimoto and Noriyasu Hirata home after a 30-minute first round match, winning 21-13, 21-15.
Duc and Gam despite their best efforts could only add some credibility to their second game score as the Hong Kong pair proved well beyond the Vietnamese duo\'s quality.
The Vietnamese were forced onto the defence from the start and hardly found a chance to counter-attack. Meanwhile Tse and Hadikusumo worked in tandem to quickly ease into a commanding position, eventually strolling to victory.
Earlier, Nguyen Tien Minh won his way into the second round after defeating Ukraine\'s Valeriy Atrashchenkov 21-16, 21-14.
The No 7 seed needed only 36 minutes to beat his unseeded rival on Monday.
The Vietnamese player, the world No 8, quickly dominated the first game with some storming smashes that proved beyond Atrashchenkov\'s ability to resist, despite the Ukrainian managing a few counters.
Two-time Olympian Minh will next meet Estonian Raul Must who beat Dieter Domke of Germany 21-16, 16-21 21-18 in the first round.
Must is ranked 45th in the world; his highest ranking was 42 in May.
Minh was eliminated in the quarter-final round of last year\'s world championship but is expected to go further this year.
Minh is the only Vietnamese player in the championship after the failure of the mixed doubles yesterday and his female team-mate Le Ngoc Nguyen Nhung\'s withdrawal before the opening because of injury.
The world championship started on Monday and is scheduled to finish with the finals on Sunday.
