Nguyen Hoang Thien entered the semi-finals of the 2011 Tennis Central 18&U ITF Summer Championships after beating Australian 14th seed Jacob Sullivan on Feb. 10 in New Zealand.

In Wellington City, the fifth seed Thien, 16, dropped in the first set before recovering to win 3-6, 7-5, 6-0. He faces another Australian, the third-seeded Jack Schipanski, in the semi-final match on Feb. 11.

Earlier, Thien defeated New Zealand's Pratt Keerasuntonpong 6-3, 6-3 in the first round and Brafley Mousley of Australia 6-3, 6-1 in the next round before eliminating local Cameron Norrie 6-1, 7-6 in the third.

The six-day tournament is scheduled to finish on Feb. 12 in Wellington.

Thien was ranked 241 in the world according to the latest world ranking table released on Feb. 7 by the International Tennis Federation. He attended training courses in the US in 2005, just two years after he took up the sport at the age of eight./.