Waiting for the SEA Games medal
The 2025 National Badminton Championship taking place in Dong Nai will be a professional test to help the team's coaching staff decide the right tennis player to go to Thailand in December.
Vietnamese badminton was left empty-handed at the 32nd SEA Games due to not winning a medal. At the above conference in Cambodia, tennis player Nguyen Thuy Linh is expected to win the women's singles medal. However, she stopped in the quarterfinals. Thuy Linh did not achieve the best results at the 32nd SEA Games.
Mr. Khoa Trung Kien, head of badminton (Vietnam Department of Physical Education and Sports) said that we set a modest target of winning a Bronze Medal at the 33rd SEA Games. That reservation is based on the fact that the Vietnamese badminton athlete force is not superior enough to the opponents Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand. Therefore, the Bronze Medal target is suitable for Vietnamese badminton.
Tennis player Nguyen Thuy Linh is the most notable badminton player. She is in the top 25 best female tennis players in the world at the moment. However, Thuy Linh has never won an individual medal at the SEA Games. The last time Thuy Linh won a SEA Games medal was the Women's Team Medal at the 31st SEA Games held in Vietnam.
General Secretary of the Vietnam Badminton Federation, Mr. Le Thanh Ha, once analyzed: "In the past, Thuy Linh has achieved good results in the international arena and achieved a good ranking in the world rankings.
However, the world's top tennis players are present in Southeast Asia, so it is very difficult for our badminton to achieve the highest results at the SEA Games. If Thuy Linh makes it to the semi-finals of the 33rd SEA Games women's singles, this will be a successful result for the individual athlete".
Good movement but lacks outstanding people
All of Vietnam's top badminton athletes, including two Olympic players Nguyen Thuy Linh and Le Duc Phat, are competing in the 2025 National Championship in Dong Nai.
The national championship is always the highest professional competition for athletes nationwide. Every year, the number of athletes participating in the National Championship increases. We assess that localities are still actively training high-performance badminton, Mr. Khoa Trung Kien added.
The badminton department (Vietnam Department of Physical Education and Sports) and the Vietnam Badminton Federation recognize that grassroots badminton nationwide has developed well in many localities. Badminton training ground and gymnasium for young athletes with positive development figures. A specific example is the 2025 National Youth Badminton Championship in June 2025, which had 660 players participating in all events for the age group from U9 to U17.
However, Vietnamese badminton has not found an outstanding athlete in terms of ability. We have a large number of badminton players, many potential young athletes, but not many players have won major international tournaments. National athlete Nguyen Thuy Linh is currently receiving the most attention due to being ranked 23rd in the world.
This tennis player has never won an important international championship from the BWF World Tour Super 300 professional level or higher. The tennis player's best championship achievement has just stopped at the Vietnam Open in 2022, 2023, 2024.
This tournament only has the BWF World Tour Super 100 level. Recently, Thuy Linh won the runner-up position at the 2025 Canada Open Badminton Tournament at the BWF World Tour Super 300 level. After the 2025 National Badminton Championship, Nguyen Thuy Linh will participate in the 2025 World Championship in France.
