Vietnam tennis ace advances to Challenger 80 semifinals for first time

Yu and Nam previously clashed in the M25 Tay Ninh tournament in October, with the Taiwanese player easily winning 6-3 and 6-2 after two sets.

During the Matsuyama Challenger 80, a much bigger tournament, Yu began with two consecutive faults, which Nam used to his advantage to take the lead. The number one Vietnamese tennis player continued the momentum and won the first set 6-2.

In the second, Nam again led after Yu made two consecutive faults. But this time, Yu quickly caught up, forcing an intense tie-break. Once again, Yu proved too eager with his serves and made mistakes, allowing a consistent Nam to win 8-6 in the tie-break.

With his feat, Nam became the first Vietnamese to qualify for the semifinals of a Challenger 80 tournament, after 14 attempts. He also received prize money of $2,510 and had 30 points added to his ATP ranking. Nam can make it to the top 230 (his career-high) and even the qualifiers for the Grand Slam Australian Open next year if he maintains his form.

Nam will face the winner of the other semifinal between Japan’s Kaichi Uchida (ranked 168th in the world) and China’s Wu Tung-Lin (204th). Both players are rated higher than Nam after each played the qualifiers for the U.S. Open this year.