Nguyen Tien Minh dumps defending champion Lee Chong Wei out of Singapore Badminton Open

Story by Jan Lin/Red Sports. Photos by Vanessa Lim/Red Sports.

Singapore Indoor Stadium, Thursday, June 11, 2009 – In a wildfire day where seeds dropped all over the stadium, defending champion Lee Chong Wei became the first top seed to be shown the exit at the 2009 Singapore Badminton Open.

The man behind this feat? Nguyen Tien Minh, a small Vietnamese man who feels hugely indebted to Singapore.

It was a recipe of speed, power and agility mixed into an exhilarating match that left spectators sitting at the edges of their seats as Nguyen Tien Minh outshone Malaysia’s world number 1 Lee Chong Wei 24-22, 20-22, 21-19 in a 61-minute epic battle in Singapore.

“I cannot believe it,” were the simple first words of the world number 11 after the sensational match.

And those were the exact same words of Tien Minh after he bulldozed China’s 7th seeded Chen Yu to enter the quarter-finals last year before being edged out narrowly by Denmark’s top shot Peter Gade.

“I don’t know why I’m always very lucky in Singapore. Tonight cannot sleep,” Tien Minh said in sheer bewilderment. “How can this be? Chong Wei didn’t play well today and he looked very nervous! We were both very patient, controlling the shuttle well but his smashes are very sharp. I just kept pushing him. I guess I made very little mistakes.”

“I don’t know why Chong Wei made so many simple mistakes,” said the amiable Vietnamese in utter disbelief. “This win is very important for me to maintain my world ranking. My confidence was already so down after losing the second game. It’s just lucky that I won it in the end. ”

Fortune or skill aside, Singapore does hold many fond memories for the incredibly agile Vietnamese, who not only owns a treasure of memorable games at the Indoor Stadium but is also indebted to the republic for being an important sparring ground in his development.

Rising to international prominence in 2007 after beating Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat in Philippines, Tien Minh was one of the 18 raw young talents selected by the IBF (now known as BWF) for a 2-month training program at the federation's pioneer training centre in Saarbruecken, Germany in 2005.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) then awarded him a scholarship in 2006 to assist him in training abroad and this has greatly assisted him in receiving exposure in international tournaments. Thereafter, Singapore “adopted” Tien Minh.

Tien Minh fondly recounted his experience in Singapore.

“Singapore helped me so much. There were no good players I can spar with in Vietnam, so Singapore allowed me to come here to spar with Ronald Susilo and Kendrick – that was before they retired.”

“I used to come here once a month, (each trip) for 10 days to 2 weeks to spar with them,” Tien Minh recollected. “Singapore’s coach Ahsep is very friendly and very good, he helped me a lot and took care of me. He allowed me to train with the Singapore team.”

Tien Minh revealed that Singapore’s national singles coach, Ahsep Suharno, who was Indonesia’s former national coach, plays an instrumental role whenever he travels on his own to international tournaments as his coach in Vietnam often remains at home.

“Every time I lost a match, I will always ask coach Ahsep and I learn something from him everyday. In training, he was very patient in coaching me and I can just try (new things). But he cannot sit behind me in my matches here because he is Singapore’s national coach.”

And so in many ways, Singapore badminton has contributed to Tien Minh’s consistent performance in the international badminton scene, and he has now attracted the attention of his own government and equipment sponsors to sustain him as a professional badminton player.

Tien Minh, who currently hopes to break into the world’s top 10 soon, concluded: “The Vietnam government now takes care of me very well. I’m also now sponsored by Victor. I don’t have to worry any more and just have to think about (improving) my game. It’s all very good.”

N.B. The event is also known as the Aviva Open Singapore

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