Nguyen Tien Minh was ranked seventh in the world in January according to the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
The Vietnamese earned 55,675 points after competing in numerous tournaments.
Minh reached No 6, his highest ranking to date, last December.
The top place still belongs to Malaysian Lee Chong Wei who defeated Minh in their previous two meetings this month.
Minh left for Seoul on Jan. 23 to compete in his second tournament of the new year, the Republic of Korea Super Series Premier, which kicks off on Jan.25.
Despite his high ranking, the two-time Olympian is not seeded in this 1.2 million USD tournament and will meet the No 4 seed Chen Long from China during the first round.
Chen is a rising world star, who has defeated both Lee and Olympian and Asian Games champion Lin Dan of China . /.
