Nguyen Tien Minh, Vietnam's top badminton player and World No 10, failed to spring a surprise at the Victor Korea Open badminton tournament on January 10 in Seoul.

However, he put up a tough fight on the way to losing his quarter-final match 17-21, 20-22 to China 's No 2, Chen Long, in more than 70 minutes.

Joining Chen Long in the semi-final round were Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand , Kenichi Tago of Japan and Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia . The final will be played on January 12.-VNA