SEA GAMES 29: Ly Hoang Nam has a chance to win gold medal

(Baonghean.vn) - General Secretary of Binh Duong Tennis Federation Le Viet Cuong said that the locality has made careful preparations so that tennis player Ly Hoang Nam has the opportunity to win a gold medal.SEA Games 29In the current ATP rankings, Ly Hoang Nam is ranked 2nd in Southeast Asia.

In recent years, Binh Duong has made a large investment in two tennis players Ly Hoang Nam and Trinh Linh Giang with very clear short-term and long-term goals. To help the young players improve their skills and physical strength to prepare for the 29th SEA Games, Becamex Binh Duong spends 5-7 thousand USD per month to hire foreign coaches. The cost for Ly Hoang Nam to participate in tournaments each year is up to over 100,000 USD.

Long-term preparation step

Tennis player Ly Hoang Nam, ranked 457 (ATP), has a good chance of winning the 29th SEA Games gold medal. Photo: Internet.

According to the coach's training plan, in 2016, Ly Hoang Nam participated in European youth tournaments, but this year, Hoang Nam mainly participated in Men's Futures tournaments to accumulate points to reach the No. 1 position in Southeast Asia. When Nam reached the No. 1 position in Southeast Asia, he was seeded for the SEA Games and had the highest chance of winning a medal.

If in 2015, Hoang Nam made a big splash when he won the Wimbledon junior championship, in 2016, Hoang Nam successfully achieved his goal of being in the Top 500 in the world according to the rankings of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Ly Hoang Nam was promoted from 537th to 457th by defeating French player Yannick Jankovits, who was ranked 115 places above him, in the final match to win the Thailand F3 Futures 2017 men's singles championship. According to the coach's training plan, Hoang Nam's next goal is to enter the Top 200, a huge challenge for this young player.

It is clear that in the past two years, Ly Hoang Nam has made a strong progress in the ATP rankings, from outside the top 1,000 to entering the world's top 500. Regarding the men's team rankings, Ly Hoang Nam is ranked 425th in the world.

SEA Games 29 Goals

Men's pair Hoang Nam/Hoang Thien, ranked top 4 seeds at SEA Games 29. Photo: Internet.

Two years ago at the 2015 SEA Games in Singapore, the Vietnamese tennis team failed to win any medals. Host Malaysia did not organize the men's and women's team events in this year's SEA Games. Tennis only has five events: men's and women's singles; men's and women's doubles; and mixed doubles. As for women, once again, athlete Huynh Phuong Dai Trang will not return to compete in the SEA Games, so we can only hope to win a bronze medal because there are no seeded athletes, making it difficult to have favorable conditions in the draw.

According to our observations, in the Southeast Asian region, Hoang Nam is currently only behind Christopher Rungkat (Indonesia, ranked 448th in the world). At the 2017 SEA Games, these two athletes are certainly in the top 3 seeds for men's singles. If they play at their best, maintain a stable competitive mentality, and make good use of objective and subjective factors, Hoang Nam has a chance to win the 29th SEA Games. If this becomes a reality, it will be a historic medal for Vietnamese tennis. The highest achievement of Vietnamese tennis at the SEA Games is still the silver medal won by the pair Kim Trang/Tan Luc 20 years ago.

The most regrettable thing is that in the men's singles event, Binh Duong still has another potential player, Trinh Linh Giang, who has just risen to 1,332nd in the world thanks to his good performance at the Thailand Futures 2017 tournament, including a victory over Ly Hoang Nam. In order to seek points to improve their achievements in the world rankings, the three players Nguyen Hoang Thien, Ly Hoang Nam, Trinh Linh Giang participated in the F4 Thailand tournament. In addition to the men's singles event, Vietnamese tennis fans are also hopeful about the men's pair Hoang Nam/Hoang Thien, the pair expected to be ranked in the top 4 seeds.

AT