Vietnam knocked out old rival Singapore in the first round of the Thomas Cup Preliminary Asia Zone on Tuesday.
The nation’s badminton ace Nguyen Tien Minh set the stage for the singles victories, needing only half an hour to knock out Wong Ziliang Derek 21-13, 21-19.
Following his success, his teammates Nguyen Hoang Nam and Duong Bao Duc beat their rivals Yongzhao Ashton and Chen Guorui with respective scores of 17-21, 21-9, 21-19 and 21-15, 21-19.
In the first doubles match, Minh and Nam downed their rivals, Saputra Hendri Kurniawan and Tang Yew Loong Jonathan, 21-14 in the first set but retired in the second with the score at 20-21.
The surprising decision by the Vietnamese pair helped Singapore narrow the margin to 1-3.
The second doubles match saw Duc paired with Pham Cao Hieu but they were outplayed by Wijaya Hendra and Yeo Zhao Jiang Terry who took the match 21-19, 21-19.
Their second consecutive loss puts Singapore at the bottom of group A with no points, having lost their first match 1-4 to Indonesia.
Vietnam’s early win in the cup comes is a shot in the arm for former Indonesian national coach Asep Suharno whose services have been hired by the Vietnamese national team.
Vietnam will meet up with Indonesia this afternoon in a battle for first position in group A.
The Thomas Cup Preliminary Asia Zone kicked off on Feb 22 with the participation of 13 countries and territories: Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, Taipei, Hong Kong, Philippines, India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Korea, Japan, Laos and Cambodia. The tournament will be played until Feb 28.
