Though performing badly at the 2008 Robot Thomas & Uber Cup Asian Zone in Ho Chi Minh City recently, Nguyen Tien Minh is still the top candidate to represent Viet Nam in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
According to Minh, his result at the Thomas & Uber Cup was quite good since he defeated one of the most formidable opponents in the world.
Minh also insisted his failure at the Cup was predictable as his last opponent, Kendrick of Singapore, knew his game strategies.
“I normally use slicing as a technique to deceive Kendrick about the speed and direction of a stroke, however, he seemed to understand my play and anticipated shots correctly,” he said.
Minh was quite pleased with the final result as he lost the game by only a small margin.
Minh has highly evaluated the quality of the competition attending the upcoming 2008 Yonex German Open Badminton Championships. It will be an important championship for Minh as his first match will be against Park Sung Hwan his defeater at the Robot Thomas & Uber Cup.
Minh has expected to go further at the Yonex German hoping to make the quarterfinals in order to gain extra bonus points from the Badminton World Federation.
According to BWF, if Minh achieved more than 1,650 points, the points would have been saved to his account. Minh can now only achieve points in the final rounds i.e. the quarterfinals, semifinals and the final due to his ranking. In order to get more than 1,650 bonus points Minh must reach these stages.
Minh will have five more opportunities to gain extra points and boost his place in the world ranking while also pocketing a ticket to enter the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. These opportunities are namely, 2008 Yonex German Open Badminton Championships, All-England Super Series, Swiss Open Super Series, Yonex Sunrise India Open Badminton Championships and Badminton Asia Championships.
At present, Minh prepares to compete in the Yonex German Open at ease since he is confident he will achieve a ticket to the Olympics.
“China and Malaysia have a lot of athletes who rank higher however BWF will only allow three athletes from each to attend the Olympic Games 2008. As a result, a ticket is probably in my hand despite being 50th in the world ranking,” said Minh.
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