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

Trailing Vladimir Malkov, 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 previous encounter at the 2015 White Nights tournament, the player who won the Russian championship in 2009 was the victor. That match even lasted only two sets.

Malkov was both healthier (three years younger) and taller than Tien Minh. In the first set, he made excellent use of this advantage, unleashing powerful smashes – especially after the halftime break. This caused Tien Minh to become increasingly exhausted and disoriented towards the end, ultimately leading to a 15-21 defeat.

However, the situation began to reverse when the second set started. Tien Minh continuously wore down his opponent with flexible shots, combining high shots to the back of both courts with drop shots close to the net.Malkov then had very few opportunities to unleash his signature smashes. The Russian player only managed three winning smashes in the entire set, and had nine shots that went into the net. Meanwhile, Tien Minh, after regaining control of the game, played brilliantly and secured a quick 21-9 victory.

The aforementioned adjustments partly stemmed from the advice of Vu Thi Trang, who was Tien Minh's coach in this match (besides judo, badminton is one of the sports in Vietnam that did not have a coach accompanying the team at this year's Olympics). While not possessing the same experience and skill as Tien Minh, with her advantageous vantage point outside the court, Vu Thi Trang was able to identify her opponent's weaknesses and offer advice to her boyfriend.

Vu Thi Trang offered advice to Tien Minh.

In the decisive set, Malkov accelerated from the start, intending to win quickly and avoid dangerous long rallies from Tien Minh. He even took a 4-1 lead at one point. However, the Vietnamese player remained unfazed. Tien Minh had previously stated that this was his last Olympics, so he would play as if he had nothing to lose.

After leveling the score, the player born in 1983 took the initiative, playing better and better towards the end, at one point widening the gap to eight points. After more than 20 minutes, the set ended with a 21-13 victory for Tien Minh.

The victory against Malkov gave Tien Minh his 25th win in 33 matches since the beginning of 2016. Photo: Reuters.

In the men's singles badminton qualifying round, only the top player from each group will advance. Tien Minh is in Group E, which includes the reigning Olympic gold medalist, Lin Dan. In the other match of this group yesterday, Lin Dan won quickly and decisively 2-0 (21-5, 21-11) against his Austrian opponent.David Obernosterer.

After the first round, Tien Minh is ranked second. The number one Vietnamese player will play against...Obernosterer will face off at 6:30 AM on Saturday, August 13th (Hanoi time). He will conclude the group stage with a match against Lin Dan at 7:40 PM on Sunday, August 14th.

The match times for men's singles badminton can change at the last minute, just like when...The Tiến Minh - Malkov badminton match was rescheduled from 9:55 PM on August 11th to the following day. The reason given was the limited number of badminton courts available to the organizers, and some previous matches had lasted longer than expected.

According to VNE