Vietnam tennis targets three gold medals at 2021 SEA Games in Hanoi

The goal was announced by Chairman of the Vietnam Tennis Federation (VTF) Nguyen Quoc Ky at a ceremony to celebrate VTF’s 30th founding anniversary, which was held in Hanoi on Friday evening (Dec 27), during which Ky also affirmed that the federation would invest heavily towards Vietnamese tennis succeeding at the next SEA Games as the hosts.

In the recent 30th SEA Games in the Philippines, Vietnamese tennis marked a historic milestone with the first gold medal in men’s singles by the nation’s top player, Ly Hoang Nam. The 1997-born player beat his senior teammate Daniel Cao Nguyen in the all-Vietnamese final to bring the first gold medal for Vietnamese tennis in 58 years. The achievement is the premise for the federation to set higher goals for the next two years.

"We’ve set the goal to win three gold medals at the 31st SEA Games at home," Ky told reporters at the ceremony as quoted from local news network Zing. In the recently-concluded SEA Games, the Philippines only hosted five tennis events, but it is possible that there will be two additional contents of male and female’s teams in the tournament in Hanoi in 2021.

To achieve this goal, the VTF sets out a series of specific plans, including bringing an ATP Tour 250 tournament to Vietnam. This will be a big playground for Vietnamese promising players, such as Ly Hoang Nam, Daniel Cao Nguyen and Trinh Linh Giang to hone their skills, since the host country always has at least two wild cards to go straight to the main round, not to mention that other players will also have a chance to compete in the qualifiers.

Under an agreement signed between the VTF and its partner at the ceremony, the tournament will soon be established and held annually in Phan Thiet City, in the coastal province of Binh Thuan. The VTF will be responsible for organising, operating, and selecting players to attend. Currently, there is no tournament under the world professional tennis system in Southeast Asia, so the upcoming ATP Tour 250 event in Vietnam will be the largest tennis tournament in the region.

In addition to raising the competitions’ quality in the near future, the VTF also actively seeks sponsors for top players. Ly Hoang Nam also received personal sponsorship of up to VND2 billion from a sponsor at the ceremony yesterday evening.

With his historic men's singles gold medal at the 30th SEA Games, Nam was honoured with the Prime Minister's Certificate of Merit at the event. The VTF also received the honour for their contribution to Vietnamese tennis over the last 30 years.