Tien Minh reaches 8th position in BWF rankings

Vietnam’s number one badminton player Nguyen Tien Minh moved up two places to eighth position with 55,186 points in the latest men’s world rankings, released by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Thursday, April 4.

Minh’s recent Ciputra Hanoi 2014 championship title nudged him up the ladder, with an additional 1,340 points. At the tournament, he fended off second seeded Chun Seang Tan from Malaysia in the finals to keep the trophy in Vietnam.

Minh was the only player in the world’s top ten to progress this week. Little change was seen in the top seven, with Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei remaining atop with 100,523 points. Chinese Chen Long and Japanese Kenichi Tago followed in second and third with 73,605 and 67,674.

Tien Minh will continue his 2014 campaign as number seven seed of the men’s singles discipline at the US$300,000 OUE Singapore Open 2014, taking place at the Singapore Indoor Stadium from April 8-13.

Quan to kick-off Davis Cup matches

Viet Nam Team No 2 player Do Minh Quan will face Sharmal Dissanayake of Sri Lanka in the first match of the Davis Cup Group II Asia/Oceania Zone play-off today in Da Lat City in Lam Dong Province.

Quan who is training to be a professional tennis player in the US will later compete in the fifth match against Harshana Godamanna on Sunday. The second match will see No 1 Nguyen Hoang Thien playing Godamanna. While the third match will be between Thien and Dissanayake.

The competition's second day tomorrow will feature a doubles match when Thien and partner Le Quoc Khanh face Godamanna and Dissanayake.

Players could be changed an hour before each match which will be determined by ITF referee David Smith.

All matches will be live aired on VTV6, HTV The Thao and Lam Dong TV.

The Viet Nam Tennis Federation has offered a big bonus of US$10,000 for the Viet Nam Team if it wins.

"We hope the bonus would be another motivation for players. I believe they will try their best to win," said Nguyen Quoc Ky, VTF general secretary.

The winner of the match will remain in Group II. The loser will be relegated to compete in Group III next season.

U19 to face Lille youth in Euro

The Viet Nam U19 football team arrived in France for their next leg of a European training and competition tour.

Today they will face Lille's youth team whose professional team are competing in Ligue 1.

The squad have been in outstanding form at the local tournament and were at the top of the leader board after 22 rounds.

Meanwhile, the Vietnamese visitors have not been playing at their peak, losing four out of five recent matches, with some key players on the bench because of injury.

Can Tho to host Southeast Asian karate championships

Vietnam will host the third Southeast Asia Karatedo championship in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho from April 16-18, said the organising committee at a press conference on April 3.

The nearly 150 athletes from seven regional countries will compete for the 39 sets of medals. The Vietnamese team is the largest with 59 men and 30 women.

At the championship in the Philippines last year, the Vietnamese team bagged three gold medals, ranking third among the participating teams.-

Judokas take titles at nat'l champs

Nguyen Thi Hoai Thuong of Binh Thuan has picked up a gold medal for the women's under-42kg category at the National Judo Club Championships in Vung Tau City.

Her teammate Nguyen Thi Minh Tu also claimed a title in the women's U45kg class. Nam Dinh's former SEA Games winner Van Ngoc Tu topped the women's U48kg pool.

In the men's draw, Tran Thuong from Bac Lieu 1 triumphed in the U90kg category.

The tournament has attracted nearly 300 athletes, both male and female, from 31 clubs nationwide.

The championships will continue until Sunday.

Nam beaten at F1 Men's Futures

Vietnamese player Ly Hoang Nam was yesterday ousted from the second round of the International Tennis Federation Malaysia F1 Men's Futures in Kuching.

Nam, 17, who is 49th on the world junior rankings, lost 6-3, 6-7 (4), 2-6 to tournament No 6 seed Karunuday Singh of India who is the 448th according to the men's world rankings.

The Malaysian Men's Futures will wrap up on Sunday and offers a US$15,000 prize pool for winners.