Nguyễn Tiến Minh

Career

Introduced to badminton by his father at the early age of 10, Minh was immediately captivated by the sport. The interest soon developed into a passion which led to Minh's crucial decision in 2001 when the athlete was 18 years old: to take on the path of becoming a professional badminton player instead of carrying on his education as his family wished. The young man's determination soon demonstrated its fruitful aspects when Minh was recruited into the national team in the same year. However, Minh's career did not become well known nationwide until 2002 when he, at the age of 19, defeated the long time national champion, Phu Cuong Nguyen, and won the gold medal for the men's singles category.

Nevertheless, despite Minh's quick progress, the badminton player was receiving a salary of less than 150 US dollars a month, as most Vietnamese athletes were at the time. After years of contributing to the nation's sport team, while his ranking has been progressing significantly and rapidly, Minh's income has only been increased by around 50 dollars. Vietnamese athletes, with incomes much higher than that of Minh's, normally have specially assigned specialists to look after their every aspect, such as diet, injuries, and endurance training, not to mention all the top ranking sporting facilities provided for by the government. On the other side of the scale, Minh has been trained in an environment with nothing but poor equipment and has to rely mostly on his family's financial support, the effort of his few coaches, and the contributions of his team mates.

Minh is portrayed by a common description in his home country, "the athlete with a herculean progress".

World Championship 2013

Minh came into the world championship seeded #7. His previous best achievement at a world championship was to get to the quarter-final round at the 2011 championship in London, where he lost to Peter Gade of Denmark in three sets.

The first match was an easy affair (21-8 21-11) against the New Zealand player Joe Wu, who ranked 110.

The second match against the German Dieter Domke turned out to be quite tight. Minh started well, but then faded, and almost lost the first set. He was able to close out the set 24-22 though. Minh then won the second set 21-17.

In the next round, Minh played the Spaniard Pablo Abián. Minh lost the first set 15-21, but came back strongly and easily won the next two sets 21-9 21-10

The quarterfinal match between Minh and Jan O Jorgensen, rank #9, was a three-setter. Both players knew a lot was at stake here: the winner not only got to the semi-final, but would also be guaranteed a medal (the two losers in the semi-final both win bronze medals). That would be the first medal for both players at a world championship. Minh won in three set match (21-8, 17-21, 22-20). He became the first Vietnamese to win a medal at the world championship.

In the semi-final against Lin Dan, Minh lost 17-21 15-21. Despite the semi-final loss, the bronze medal was still a huge success for Tien Minh.

Immediately after the championship, Minh was nominated by the governmental sports authority of Vietnam (the TCTDTT - Bureau of Sports and Physical Activities) for an Order of Labor, 2nd class. Minh had been awarded the Order of Labor, 3rd class in 2011, also for his achievements and excellency in the field of sports.

Awards

BWF World Championships

Men's Singles

BWF Grand Prix

The BWF Grand Prix has two level such as Grand Prix and Grand Prix Gold. It is a series of badminton tournaments, sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF) since 2007.

Men's Singles

BWF International Challenge

Men's Singles

Record Against Selected Opponents, Head-to-head vs. top 20 ranked players

Includes results from all competitions 2005–present.

Record against top-5 players

Nguyễn Tiến Minh's record against players who have been ranked world no. 5 or higher is as follows: