Host player Tian Houwei outperformed Vietnamese hopeful Nguyen Tien Minh 2-1 at the first round of the China Open 2013 on November 13.

It was a tough badminton game for Minh as Tian was in good form and had beaten World N°1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia and World N°6 Jan Jorgensen of Denmark. Tian also triumphed at London Grand Prix Gold and Australia Open 2013.

The 21-year-old Chinese player forced Minh to work hard to repel his powerful smashes. International experience only helped the Vietnamese No1 player take advantage in the first set, but could not resist the young Chinese star’s strong serves in the next two sets.

This was Minh’s second consecutive defeat at the first round of an international tournament, following his early exit at the earlier Yonex Denmark Open 2013 in mid-October after losing to Malaysia's Chong Wei Feng in the first round.

Minh had a bad start, losing to the unseeded player 21-19 in the first set. He rallied back to claim the second. In the decider, younger Chong easily outgunned the 30-year-old Minh, who seemed to run out of steam, to take the set at 21-7 and sealed the overall 2-1 victory after 58 minutes.
The top Vietnamese badminton player will compete at the Yonex Sunrise Hong Kong Open, which became part of the Badminton World Federation Super Series in 2007. The 2013 edition will be held at the Hong Kong Coliseum from November 19-24.-VNA