Nguyen Tien Minh hammers Bao Chunlai to surge into Men’s Singles semi-final of US Open GP Gold 2011
Vietnam’s Nguyen Tien Minh booked his berth in the Men’s Singles semi-final as he hammered China’s Bao Chunlai in the quarter-final of the US Open GP Gold 2011, in USA, on Thursday, July 14.
Tien Minh, who stands at Ninth position in the world standings, opened his campaign impressively against Chunlai, who is currently World Number 11 in the Men’s Singles rankings. The number three seed in the event, Tien Minh, surprisingly earned an easy win
over the experienced Chinese, who was the fifth seed in the tournament.
The Vietnamese has played tremendous badminton in the US Open so far, as his movement has been quite impressive in all areas of the court. While playing against the Chinese in the quarter-final match, Tien Minh remained composed throughout the fight and
emerged as the winner with an impressive margin.
In the opening set of the match, both players played to their full potential by employing every skill they learnt from years of playing at international level. The net play of the Vietnamese was incredible while the Chinese was playing an impressive game
from the rear court areas. Until the interval, Tien Minh could manage only a one-point gap at 11-10.
The third seed started to build pressure on Chunlai by playing fast in the second-half. Tien Minh was flawless in executing his beautiful jump smashes followed by net strokes. Chunlai worked extra hard to occupy the driving seat, but he failed against the
firing Tien Minh, who won the first game by 21-18, in 21 minutes.
Tien Minh continued his flawless run in the second game and quickly reached 11-7, without wasting any time. Chunlai was lacking the accuracy in his cross court smashes. The Vietnamese maintained the speed of the game and grabbed the second set with a 21-15
margin, in just 16 minutes. The final result of this 37-minute straight-set Men’s Singles quarter-final was 21-18 and 21-15.
In the semi-final, Tien Minh will meet Marc Zwiebler of Germany, who stunned the top seed, Indonesia’s Taufik Hidayat in the top-8 stage of the tournament.
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