National champion Lê Đức Phát will represent Việt Nam in the Yonex-Sunrise Việt Nam Open on September 27-October 2. Photo courtesy of Lê Đức Phát
HÀ NỘI — The 2022 Yonex-Sunrise Việt Nam Open badminton tournament will bring high-ranking international players and domestic athletes to the Nguyễn Du Gymnasium in HCM City.
It is one of the Badminton World Federation's Super 100 Tour and will be organised on September 27-October 2 with 200 participants.
Athletes will compete in five categories of men's and women's singles, doubles, and mixed doubles, for a total purse of US$75,000.
World No 17 Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan is seeded No 1 in the men's singles. He is followed by No 41 Sai Praneeth from India and No 28 Kodai Naraoka of Japan.
In the women's class, Aya Ohori is the leading athlete. The Japanese star is world No 26. Other seeds include No 30 Saina Nehwal of India and No 40 Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonesia.
Nguyễn Thùy Linh is the only host athlete in the top 10. She is No 6 and is expected to get a high result after winning the Yonex Belgian International title on September 17.
Domestic hopes
In addition to Linh, Việt Nam sends a strong contingent of 54 players and coaches to the Open.
Vietnamese legend Nguyễn Tiến Minh, former world No 5, will play Chinese Sun Fei Xiang in the first round of the men's singles.
Minh is one of three domestic players starting from the main round.
National champion Lê Đức Phát will meet Sholeh Aidil from Malaysia, while Nguyễn Hải Đăng gets a bye to the second round.
Linh will take charge of medal hopes in the female competition. She will first play unseeded teammate Phạm Thị Diệu Ly in the first match.
Meanwhile, veteran Vũ Thị Trang will face No 8 Ashmita Chaliha of India while her junior teammate Vũ Thị Anh Thư, who made strong progress recently, will have a huge challenge as she is to play No 3 Wardani.
The individual winner will walk away with US$5,625, while the winning pair will receive $5,925.
The Việt Nam Open, which was first organised in 1996, returned to action after two years of being postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the last edition in 2019, Sourabh Verma of India and Zhang Yi Man of China won men's and women's singles titles, respectively.
South Korean pair won the men's double gold; the women's doubles title went to Indonesia. China took the mixed doubles. — VNS
OVietnam