Minh through to quarter-finals in London

Viet Nam's sole representative at the ongoing BWF World Badminton Championship Nguyen Tien Minh has qualified for the quarter-finals for the first time after failing in his previous six attempts.

In last year's championships in France, the 28-year-old crashed out in the second round, losing to Park Sung H-wan of South Korea.

Olympian Minh needed just 36 minutes to see off Thailand's Boonsak Ponsana 2-0 (21-11 and 21-15) in the third round early yesterday morning, the second time he has beaten him in three meetings.

In the first set, Boonsak started well, but seventh seed Minh came back strongly, scoring 11 points in a row to take the set.

Boonsak changed his tactics in the second set, but Minh kept it together and quickly wrapped up the match.

The HCM City-native, who finished runner up at the US Open Grand Prix Gold after losing to Japan's Sho Sasaki in the final last month, is scheduled to meet Denmark's No three seed Peter Hoeg Gade in the quarter-finals.

Gade struggled for one hour and 15 minutes in the third round against 13th seed Simon Santoso of Indonesia, but finished the match 2-1 (21-18, 14-21, 21-14) at Wembley Arena.

Minh has been tipped for a berth at the upcoming Olympics in London. — VNS