Vietnamese table tennis makes a splash at world championship

Defeating Slovakia, the Vietnamese women's table tennis team entered the Top 8 strongest teams in Group II.

The match between the Vietnamese women's team and the Slovakian women's team took place this afternoon, March 3, at the Malawati Stadium, Shah Alam (Malaysia). Mai Hoang My Trang and her teammates were rated lower because they were seven places lower than their opponents, who are ranked 22nd in the World Table Tennis Federation rankings.

Mai Hoang My Trang won two consecutive matches, helping the Vietnamese women's team defeat Slovakia. Photo: Tong Duc Thuan.

Number one hope My Trang took the lead, defeating Jurkova Eva 11-2, 11-4, 8-11 and 11-5. Kukolkova Tatiana then leveled the score for Slovakia with a 3-2 win over Nguyen Thi Nga. However, Nguyen Thi Viet Linh had an excellent performance, defeatingLabosova Ema 3-1 tohelp the Vietnamese women's team regain the lead.

In the deciding match, Mai Hoang My Trang caused a shock when she quickly defeated Kukulkova Tatiana after three sets with scores of 11-3, 11-6 and 11-8. Thanks to that, the Vietnamese women's team won the right to enter the quarterfinals.

“This is a historic victory for Vietnamese table tennis. After nearly 20 years, the Vietnamese women's team has participated in the world championship. Through this tournament, we have more or less determined the position of Vietnamese women's table tennis on the world table tennis map. The matches ahead are still very difficult, the whole team will try their best in each match,” Head coach of the Vietnamese table tennis team Nguyen Nam Hai excitedly shared with VnExpress.

The next opponent of My Trang and her teammates is the Serbian team, ranked 21st in the world. The match starts at 12:00 tomorrow, March 4.

If they win Group II, the Vietnamese women's team will be promoted to Group I, which includes the world's top teams such as China, Japan, Germany, South Korea...

According to VNE