Vietnamese badminton star drops in world ranking, faces difficulty at Paris Olympics

Before the European tour in March, Linh was 22nd in the world. She then reached the final of the German Open and moved up one place. But following tournaments in England, France, Switzerland and Spain, she only won two more matches and returned to Vietnam with a total score of 48,350.

In early April, Linh attended the Asian Badminton Championship in Ningbo, China. But she could not accumulate more points after losing to world number 13 Aya Ohori of Japan in the first round. In the latest update of world badminton ranking, Linh dropped to 24th.

Linh’s decline came from the fact that two opponents ranked behind her made great progress. Danish player Line Kjaersfeldt accumulated 50,001 points, while Scotland’s Kirsty Gilmour got 48,719 points.

Gilmour, who finished the European Championship as runner-up, also put Linh in a difficult position in the 2024 Paris Olympics seeding group.

The ranking of players in Paris Olympic qualification has not been updated by the Badminton World Federation and Linh is still 16th. However, she will likely drop to 17th when Gilmour climbs. If Linh continues to fall, she will not be among the seeded players, which means she will meet strong opponents from the first round of the Olympics.

Another Vietnamese badminton player, Vu Thi Anh Thu, also dropped three places, out of the world's top 100. Male tennis player Nguyen Hai Dang, after reaching the round of 16 of the Asian Championship, climbed to 77th, two places below compatriot Le Duc Phat.