Tien Minh proves his worth as Vietnam is out of Thomas Cup preliminaries – Badminton news
Tien Minh Nguyen stands out with his performance in Thomas Cup preliminaries while Vietnam’s other shuttlers failed to back him in the event.
Vietnamese badminton players could not register their mark in both Singles and Doubles categories apart from Tien Minh’s two phenomenal victories.
Currently ranked nine in the world rankings, Tien Minh is the only player who has raised country’s flag in the event and gave something back home to cheer about.
In the opening match with China, he played masterly against World Number three Chen Long .
The Chinese maestro had to bow down as Tien Minh did not give him even a single chance to rise on his toes. Tien Minh crushed him in 41 minutes with a notable margin of 21-15 and 21-12.
Unfortunately, Tien Minh’s effort was fritter away by his fellow shuttlers as they lost all Singles and Doubles matches.
Tien Minh played his specified role in the next encounter with Chinese Taipei where he nailed Jen Hao Hsu by scoring 21-18 and 21-8 on the board. However, the rest of the lot in Vietnam squad again squandered his success as they could not rise on the occasion.
He has been keeping Vietnam alive in badminton circle successfully for years, but he is alone in this journey and no other shuttler possesses the skills to become a true successor to him.
All other Vietnamese badminton players like Le Ha Anh, Nguyen Hoang Nam and Le Ngoc Nguyen Nhung have not reached even to his dust and remained struggling to get registered at international level .
Vice Chair of the Ho Chi Minh City Badminton Association , Huynh Thi Ngoc Lien, realised a huge gap between top seed and the rest of shuttlers four years ago at the Olympic 2008. She briefly said, “Behind Tien Minh is a vast space.”
This short verdict tells the whole story.
Tien Minh earned this position on his own. He literally rose from the dust and did not even have a coach. But nothing could bring his movement to a halt as he reached in top ten badminton players of the world and still defending his position successfully.
The matchless Tien Minh is now 29 and with this age it will be interesting to see him defending his country’s honour solely in London Olympics 2012.
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