With his girlfriend's support, Tien Minh won his first match at the 2016 Olympics.

Although Vladimir Malkov took the lead, the Vietnamese player managed to come back and win with a final score of 15-21, 21-9, 21-13.

Malkov is currently ranked 61st in the world - nearly 30 places behind Tien Minh. However, in their only confrontation at the 2015 White Nights tournament, the player who won the Russian championship in 2009 was the winner. The match even lasted only two sets.

Malkov was both physically stronger (three years younger) and taller than Tien Minh. And in the first set, he used this advantage to his advantage by delivering powerful smashes - especially after the break in the middle of the game. This made Tien Minh weaker and more confused towards the end, forcing him to accept defeat 15-21.

However, the situation began to reverse when the second set started. Tien Minh continuously exhausted his opponent with flexible shots, combining high shots to the end of the court and close-to-net shots.Malkov had little chance to hit his signature smashes from then on. The Russian player only scored three points in the entire set, and missed nine times. Tien Minh, after regaining control of the game, played brilliantly and won quickly 21-9.

The above adjustment partly came from the advice of Vu Thi Trang - who was Tien Minh's coach in this match (besides judo, badminton is one of the Vietnamese sports that does not have a coach at this year's Olympics). Her experience and level cannot be compared to Tien Minh's, but with a favorable observation angle from outside the field, Vu Thi Trang saw the opponent's limitations and from there gave her boyfriend advice.

Vu Thi Trang gives advice to Tien Minh.

In the deciding game, Malkov accelerated from the start with the intention of playing fast and winning quickly, avoiding dangerous sustained shots from Tien Minh. Thanks to that, he was able to take a 4-1 lead at one point. However, the Vietnamese player was not shaken. Tien Minh once said that this was the last Olympics of his career, so he would play as if he had nothing to lose.

After leveling the scores, the player born in 1983 took the initiative, playing better and better towards the end, and at times widened the gap to eight points. After more than 20 minutes, the set ended with a 21-13 victory in favor of Tien Minh.

The victory over Malkov helped Tien Minh have his 25th victory in 33 matches since the beginning of 2016. Photo: Reuters.

In the men's singles badminton qualifying round, each group will have only one group winner advancing. Tien Minh competes in group E, which includes the reigning Olympic gold medalist, Lin Dan. In the remaining match of this group yesterday, Lin Dan won quickly and neatly 2-0 (21-5, 21-11) against his opponent Austria.David Obernosterer.

After the first round, Tien Minh ranked second. Vietnam's number one tennis player will compete withObernosterer at 6:30 am on Saturday, August 13 (Hanoi time). He will close the group stage with a match against Lin Dan at 7:40 pm on Sunday, August 14.

Men's singles badminton match times may change at the last minute, just like when tThe Tien Minh - Malkov match was postponed from 9:55 p.m. on August 11 to the following day. The reason is that the organizers have limited badminton courts, and some previous matches took longer than expected.

According to VNE