YONEX-SUNRISE VIETNAM OPEN SF

YONEX-SUNRISE VIETNAM OPEN SF - One Step Closer

Still one step to go for Nguyen Tien Minh for him to keep his title in his homeland tournament. A win in his semi-final set him up to meet his opponent from last year’s Vietnam International Challenge, Malaysia's Chong Wei Feng (photo) If their last meeting is any indication, he will be forced to play his very best to defend his Vietnam Open Grand Prix title. A Taiwenese youngster is the lone unseeded player in any of the five finals as Tai Tzu Ying created the biggest surprise and is sure to make her name known as a potential danger in the upcoming tournaments.

By Tarek Hafi. Photos: BadmintonPhoto.com (archives)

Vietnam's pride for another title at home

Home favourite Nguyen Tien Minh scared his own crowd when he was forced to go the full distance against the up-and-coming Indonesian Adityawarman, who took the second game with a slight margin 21-17, quite different from the first game where the confident Vietnamese concluded with a 21-9 score. With the whole crowd keeping their fingers crossed in hopes of having at least one local representative in the finals, Tien Minh didn't let the suspense last long in the decider and grabbed his ticket to a second consecutive final 21-14.

However, what's left is certainly not an easy path to the trophy, as he will be meeting Malaysia's Chong Wei Feng, who last year took Nguyen to a tremendous rubber game that ended in a 26-24 success in favor of the Vietnamese star. The Malaysian defeated the young Indonesian player Tommy Sugiarto, who couldn't find the energy to get through the fourth seed therefore lost in straight but close games 15-21, 19-21.

One chance only

Still, there was big disappointment for Vietnam in the women's singles event, where the lesser known Le Ngoc Nguyen Nhung, who's playing here her lifetime best perfomance in a Grand Prix tournament, lost to Taiwan's Tai Tzu Ying - the Asian Junior Championship runner-up -

in three games. After being severely beaten in the opening game 21-11, Le Ngoc couldn't just show her home crowd such a disastrous performance and kept fighting back against the Taiwan teen. The latter was close to winning in straight games but the Vietnam shuttler eventually won it by the extremely close score of 25-23. In spite of her young age, Tai managed to win the rubber game, ruining the home player’s dream of reaching her first ever international title, at home.

Francisca Ratnasari will be Tai's next opponent after she overcame third-seeded Malaysian Lydia Cheah in two tremendous games where each shuttler drew close to winning her finals ticket but in the end, the Indonesian showed she's getting back to her best form, which brought her back in 2005 at the top of the Indonesian's women's single squad. She eventually beat Cheah 21-19-21-18.

Title holders and top-seeded veterans Choong Tan Fook and Lee Wan Wah were stopped by the new Indonesian combination of former world #1 Luluk Hadiyanto (pictured) and Joko Riyadi, who seem very confident to quickly raise their rank and join their Olympic compatriots Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan among the world's top pairs. Two close games, of 21-17, and 22-20, were enough for the new pair to get through to the final stage.

One Malaysian pair is apparently not enough for Hadiyanto and Riyadi, who are now set to meet sixth seeds Ong and Hoon from Malaysia, who beat their compatriots Chan and Lim after three thrilling games that ended 21-10, 14-21, 21-15.

Logic prevails …

The draw's logic proved flawless for the women's doubles final, with the top seeds, Agustine/Wahyuni (pictured), entering the final after an easy 21-14, 21-9 win over Malaysia's Ng/Lai. They also happen to be facing the second seeds from Thailand Amitrapai/Munkit, who, on the other hand, needed to battle for one hour to advance past Malaysia's Chong and Woon with a 16-21, 21-16, 21-10 victory.

No final without struggles

None of the pairs who got into the final of the mixed can claim an easy path as both pairs had first to go through hard battles to clinch their final spot. First, top seeds Goh and Chan went through a long, tough match against teammates Lim and Ng, a real delight for all spectators as it ended up with a 21-16, 19-21, 21-18 score.

New international duo Flandy Limpele from Indonesia and Cheng Wen Hsing from Chinese Taipei just couldn't stop at twenty one points but seemed to feel each game should go much further as their match against Indonesia's second seeds Ahmad/Dili, remained tense until the end but in the end saw the veterans emerge on top by the tremendous scores of 22-20, 27-25.

Finals line-up:

XD: Chan/Goh (MAS) vs. Limpele/Cheng (INA/TPE)
WD: Augustine/Wahyuni (INA) vs. Amitrapai/Munkit (THA)
MS: Nguyen Tien Minh (VIE) vs. Chong Wei Feng (MAS)
WS: Tai Tzu Ying (TPE) vs. Francisca Ratnasari (INA)
MD: Hadiyanto/Riyadi (INA) vs. Hoon/Ong (MAS)

For complete quarter-final results from the 2009 Yonex-Sunrise Vietnam Open Grand Prix, please CLICK HERE

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