In the second round at Phan Dinh Phung Gymnasium on August 24, Minh easily beat Hsuan Lin Chia of Chinese Taipei 21-12, 21-15, while the Japanese also had an easy match against Chan Kwong Beng of Malaysia, winning 21-12, 21-13.

Minh, world No 7, and Sonoda, No 79, have met only one time, at the Badminton Asia Championships in China in April. Minh beat Sonoda 21-17, 21-13 in the third round after 32 minutes.

In the women’s singles event, the only Vietnamese player, Vu Thi Trang, had a good match to defeat American Wang Iris 21-14, 21-9 in the first round.

Trang will next face Ayume Mine of Japan. It will be a very tough game for Trang who pocketed a bronze medal from the Singapore’s first Youth Olympics last year because Mine beat Indonesian eighth seed Maria Febe Kusumastuti in the first round.

In the women’s doubles, top-seeded duo Lotte Jonathans and Paulien Van Dooremalen of the Netherlands reached the second round after overcoming Kana Ito and Ayumi Mine of Japan in three sets (12-21, 21-13, 21-10).

Top-seeded duo Chrisnanta Danny Bawa and Neo Yu Yan Vanessa of Singapore easily advanced to the second round in the mixed doubles event after beating Pham Ngoc Thiet and Nguyen Thi Be Tram of Vietnam.

Earlier, Huynh Nguyen Khang and Thai Thi Hong Gam defeated Nguyen Thanh Van and Lam Huynh Ngoc Uyen 21-13, 21-14 in an all-Vietnamese match.

Another host pair, Duong Nguyen Nhan Hoa and Phan Nguyen Ngoc Quyen, won 21-18, 21-15 against their country-fellow Bao Minh and Ton Nu Khai Thu.

However, both two duos will need to be on form when they play top-seeds in the next round on August 25.