By Vu Duc - The Saigon Times Daily
HCMC - Vietnam’s top badminton player, Nguyen Tien Minh, who ranks eighth in the world, made a good start at the World Badminton Championships in Paris as he overpowered his opponent on Wednesday, reaching the last 16 round.
The No. 7 seed had no trouble from Raul Must of Estonia, who is ranked 45th, in his second game, winning 2-0.
The Vietnamese needed only 42 minutes for the win. Minh quickly dominated in the first set, winning 21-14. The Estonian managed some attacks early in the second, which Minh came back strongly to win 21-10.
Two-time Olympian Minh will meet South Korean Park Sung Hwan, who ranks 14th in the world, or Russian Vladimir Ivanov, who ranks 84th, in the next round.
Earlier in the tournament, Minh showed off his skills and strength by beating Ukraine’s Valeriy Atrashchenkov 21-16, 21-14 in the opener in 36 minutes on Monday.
Minh was eliminated in the quarter-final round of last year’s world championship in India but is expected to go further this year.
Minh is the only Vietnamese player still in the championship after the failure of the mixed doubles team on Tuesday and his female team-mate Le Ngoc Nguyen Nhung’s withdrawal before the opening because of injury.
Vietnam mixed pair Duong Bao Duc and Thai Thi Hong Gam were ousted from the tournament when they were defeated 9-21, 15-21 by Hong Kong’s Yohan Hadikusumo Wiratama and Ying Suet Tse in a 22-minute game on Tuesday.
The Hong Kong team surprisingly knocked out No 11 seed Hirokatsu Hashimoto and Noriyasu Hirata from Japan after beating the stronger team 21-13, 21-15 in a 30-minute first round match on Monday.
The week-long tournament is in Paris until this Sunday. The international tournament has attracted top-ranked Lee Chong Wei from Malaysia third-ranked Lin Dan, 10th-ranked Bao Chun Lai from China and fifth-ranked Taufik Hydayat from Indonesia.