Nguyen Tien Minh of Viet Nam, seeded two, struggled to beat Guo Kai 21-19, 22-20 in the third round of the Yonex Australian Badminton Open yesterday in Sydney.

Minh, world No 9, found it hard to contend against the non-seeded player, who came from China, one of the world's badminton centres.

The Vietnamese player was behind throughout the first set but came up to win in the last four points. The second set seemed more equal for both sides, with both taking turns in the lead. Senior Minh took advantage of his international experience to secure the last two points against his rival, ranked 284th in the world.

In today's quarter-final round, Minh will face Chinese qualifier Xue Song, who made a big splash yesterday by defeating Indonesian legend Taufik Hydayat, seeded six, 21-9, 21-13.-VNS