HANOI, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's top badminton player Nguyen Tien Minh will compete at Princess Sirivannavari Thailand Masters 2018 from Jan. 9-14 in Thailand, with a total prize of 150,000 U.S. dollars, the Vietnam Badminton Federation said on Wednesday.

Born in 1983 in Ho Chi Minh City, Nguyen Tien Minh, whose best achievement is a bronze medal at the World Badminton Championship in 2013, is scheduled to have the first match at Thailand Masters against Jason Ho-shue who became the youngest Canadian badminton player to win the national title in men's singles event in 2016 at the age of 18.

In the men's singles event, there are eigh seeds, including Hu Yun and Lee Cheuk Yiu from Hong Kong of China, two players from Thailand, one each from Indonesia, Brazil, Malaysia and the Netherlands.

The 2018 Thailand Masters is the first tournament of the 2018 Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour Level 5 and also part of the Thailand Masters championships which has been held since 2016.