Third-seeded Minh on September 3 took 41 minutes to beatunseeded Mahbub Thomi Azizan of Indonesia, 21-17, 21-15, in their firstmeeting at an international tournament.
Opting to taking anaggressive stance in the match, Minh began strongly and attacked withpowerful smashes. His game plan worked as the he quickly took acommanding lead, with the margin never falling below three points,before finishing the set at 21-17.
The four-time champion builtan even bigger lead early in the second set as he raced to 5-0, then14-8, then 18-11, though Azizan forced Minh into some long rallies,which drew rounds of applause from supporters.
The Indonesianmanaged to reduce the deficit to 19-15, but unsuccessful smashes andlong shuttles killed him off as Minh claimed the set, 21-15.
Minh will meet Nur Mohd Azriyn Ayub of Malaysia on September 4.
Organisershad to move the games to Tan Binh Indoor Gymnasium after a part of theceiling of Phan Dinh Phung Indoor Gymnasium, the tournament venue since2008, crumbled during a badminton match. Nobody was hurt.
Theincident sparked changes in schedule and forced some players to playtheir matches later in the day. Organisers had to send buses to moveplayers from their hotels, which are just a few minutes walk from theoriginal venue, to the new venue.
Players who competed onSeptember 2 night at the former venue expressed sympathy for theorganisers and said the change of venue had not caused any problems.
"Ithink it was beyond the organisers' control, so we have to accept thechange. But everything had been handled well, and we didn't have anyproblems concerning the schedule as well as transportation," said Indianplayer Ajay Jayaram, who has competed in previous tournaments.
"Everythingis OK and the facility is good," he added. Jayaram also entered thethird round after overcoming Hsuan Yi Hsueh of Chinese Taipei 21-15,21-18.
Young player Tan Chee Thean, who was not at the stadium onSeptember 2 night and is competing in the event for the first time,said the change of stadium did not worry him because everything wasunder control and he has yet to play a match.
Vietnamese younghopeful Pham Cao Cuong wasted two match points to allow Hashiru Shimonoof Japan to stage a come-from-behind victory, 21-14, 14-21, 12-21.
Another hopeful, Pham Hoang Nam, also failed to qualify as he lost to Kean Yew Loh of Singapore in the first round.-VNA