On the evening of October 2, the BDMNTN-XL (BXL) badminton tournament officially kicked off in Jakarta (Indonesia). In the opening match, Nguyen Thuy Linh and her teammates in the Lightning shirt lost to Blitzers after a series of intense matches.
The Lightning team brings together many prominent faces such as Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen, Fajar Alfian, Nur Izzudin Rumsani, Yuta Watanabe, Shevon Lai, Tse Ying Svet and Rutaparna Panda. Their opponents, the Blitzers, have Donald Christie, Michelle Li, Chirag Shetty, Ong Yew Sin, Apriyani Rahayu, Lai Pei Jing and Misaki Matsutomo.
The tournament applies a new format, with 2 singles matches and 2 3 3 matches, each lasting 8 minutes. The Lightning started smoothly as Alfian, Rumsani and Shevon Lai won 3-2 in the first 3 matches. However, Nguyen Thuy Linh then lost to Michelle Li 0-4, causing the team to lose the advantage.
In the next singles match, Viktor Axelsen beat Donald Christie 3-2, equalizing the score. However, the Lightning lost 1-3 in the following 3 matches, forcing the two teams to determine the winner and loser in a decisive singles match. Once again, Axelsen met Christie again but this time he lost 4-5, ending the final loss to Lightning.
This result made it difficult for Lightning to compete for the championship. If they cannot improve their performance, they will miss the opportunity to receive a reward of 350,000 USD (about 9.2 billion VND). For Nguyen Thuy Linh, failure means not achieving a reward of more than 40,000 USD (more than 1 billion VND).
On October 3, the Lightning will enter their second match against Hurricane, forced to win to keep hopes of reaching the final. The BXL tournament takes place from October 2 to 5, with a total prize value of 750,000 USD (nearly 20 billion VND).
