Despite an unsuccessful beginning in the match with Malaysia’s Muhammad Hafiz Hashim, Nguyen Tien Minh made a lot of efforts to get the 21-18 and 21-6 win in the two successive sets and gained the right to enter the quarter-final of the 2011 YONEX-SUNRISE Malaysia Open Grand Prix Gold.
Tien Minh finally won and entered the quarter-final (Photo: nld.com.vn)
Tien Minh last week started the 16th round with a slow pace when led by Hafiz Hashim, ranked 34th in the world, in the beginning. After the 4-4 draw, Hafiz Hashim continually got 8 points and built a lead 12-4 and then 18-7 over Tien Minh.
At that moment, Tien Minh began to play more effectively. Despite the failure in the first set, Tien Minh still received many compliments on his efforts. The gap 11 points seemed to be nothing to him when he tried his best to shorten it into 1 point with a 19-20 score before accepted a tightly 19-21 lose.
Vietnam’s No.1 badminton player played very successfully in the next two sets with the 21-18 and 21-6 wins. In the third set, Tien Minh took advantage of the 10-6 lead by gaining a series of 11 points and won with a 21-6 result which totally impressed Malaysian spectators.
After the match, Nguyen Tien Minh contacted us and said “this is actually a thrilling match because the opponent knows too much about my tactics. So, in the crucial moves, there are many times that I have to change my tactics and it works well. In this match, Hafiz tries to win in two sets but he fails. And today, the key factor that contributes to my victory is my physical condition.”
Entering the quarter-final which took place on May 6th, Tien Minh’s opponent was Indonesia’s Sony Dwi Kuncoro, who ranked 29th in the world. Although Tien Minh has been highly appreciated in this tournament, he should play cautiously if he wants to go further in this year’s tournament.
