A favourable draw has pegged Viet Nam's top badminton player Nguyen Tien Minh as likely to reach the quarter-finals of the All England Open Badminton Championships between March 4-9 in Birmingham.

According to the draw announced on Wednesday, Minh will be seeded eighth at the tournament and will face lower seeded players in the first two rounds.

The HCM City-born player will face Malaysia's Daren Liew in the first round, of whom Minh has a 5-0 lead over from prior matches with the world No 38. In the next round, he is likely to meet Japanese Sho Sasaki, world No 24, who has only won three out of the pair's nine meetings.

The tournament, one of the Super Series Premier events, offers a US$400,000 prize money for competitors. — VNS