(Beijing, October 14) Nguyen Tien Minh from Vietnam, the only foreign player participating in the "Good Luck Beijing" 2007 International Badminton Invitational, defeated Li Yu, No. 8 seed player, 21-14, 22-24 and 22-20 in this morning's men's singles match for the third place, thus successfully ending his Beijing tourney with a bronze medal.

Nguyen Tien Minh is ranked No. 4 at this tournament. In yesterday's semifinals he realized his biggest wish in this journey - to compete with Lin Dan, the world No. 1 in the men's singles. Despite his 0-2 loss, he displayed his prowess and won Lin's praise. The competition with Li Yu this morning was also his last performance in the on-going event.

Nguyen Tien Minh and Li Yu are well matched in strength. From the beginning of the match, Nguyen showed very high fighting spirit, delivering powerful smashes with varied placement and soon getting the upper hand over his opponent. Not used to Nguyen's play, Li Yu was forced into a passive position. Though he managed to play unruffledly and scored several points to narrow the gap he still lost the first game 21-14.

Having learnt a lesson from the first game, Li adjusted his play to lead 5-2. The experienced Nguyen then scored three points in a row to tie the score at 5 and went on to score three more to lead 8-5. Following that, the score was tied at 8, 9, 10, 12 and 16, and all the way to 22-22. At this critical moment, Li managed to score two more points to finish the grueling game 24-22.

In the third, decisive game, the contention turned white-hot. After several ties in the beginning, Nguyen led the game with fast attacks on his rival's errors. Trailing four points, Li tied the score at 13, 14, 16, 17 and 20 through high quality service and attack. However, at the last moment, Nguyen played more cool-headedly for two more points to claim the game 22-20 and the bronze medal.