Tien Minh Nguyen cruises into Men’s Singles quarter-final at Chinese Taipei Open Grand Prix Gold
Vietnam’s Tien Minh Nguyen found his form back as he stormed into Men’s Singles quarter-final after showing exit to Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin of Malaysia in round-of-16 contest at the Chinese Taipei Open Grand Prix Gold 2012 on Thursday, October 4, in
Chinese Taipei.
The second seeded Tien Minh, who has been positioned at number 13 in Men’s Singles world placements, played controlled badminton and claimed his place in the top-eight by ending up the victorious run of Iskandar in a dominating manner.
Tien Minh has been struggling hard to win a major title for the last few months and seems to get the much needed breakthrough at this tournament.
The higher ranked Tien Minh was in good form while playing against his un-seeded Malaysian opponent and he managed to win the battle in straight games with a decent total on the board.
On the other hand, Iskandar was not at his best as he found it hard to create gaps in his rival’s court and he also failed to dictate the pace of rallies at crucial moments.
The Malaysian shuttler went down to his Vietnamese challenger without showing up any considerable resistance in 39 minutes.
In the opening set, both men showed a tremendous display of powerful shots from all areas of the court and stayed close on score board at the initial stage.
Nevertheless, Tien Minh played a few fabulous shots towards the end of first half and managed an 11-8 lead.
After the break, Iskandar changed his tactics and played with aggression leaving no room for his opponent and managed to make the score levelled at 11-11.
However, Tien Minh played with precision in the concluding phase of opening set and took the first set with a reasonable total of 21-17.
In the following set, both shuttlers again locked horns and pushed each other to the limit by playing attacking badminton. The score remained close in opening half.
In the concluding phase, Tien Minh again managed to elevate his level of play when it mattered most and ended up the set with a 21-17 score on the board.
Tien Minh finished up this pre-quarter-final competition in straight games with a decent margin of 21-17 and 21-17.
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