Playing at home is more open
Two players Nguyen Thuy Linh and Le Duc Phat competed in the 2024 Vietnam International Badminton Open in Ho Chi Minh City. Nguyen Thuy Linh said: “The Vietnam International Badminton Open has always been meaningful to me because this is where I achieved my famous results and especially, I was able to compete and receive a lot of support from Vietnamese fans directly on the field.”
In terms of level, this is the highest international badminton tournament (BWF World Tour Super 100 level) held in Vietnam. Therefore, the players in the qualifying rankings are Vietnamese badminton players who have the opportunity to compete.
Adding another encouragement, young tennis player Nguyen Thi Thu Huyen (13 years old) was registered by Vietnam Badminton to compete this year. Thu Huyen will be the youngest player at the 2024 Vietnam International Badminton Open. Before coming to Ho Chi Minh City to compete, Thu Huyen expressed: "The tournament was announced to have many international players participating, I hope I will accumulate more expertise in the tournament."
The 2024 Con Son International Table Tennis Tournament held at the Hai Duong Provincial Gymnasium recently also attracted many of Vietnam's top male and female players to participate and create attraction. The reason is that the organizer invited players from China, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan (China) to participate, so many domestic table tennis clubs and units sent their highest level athletes to participate.
There are two points that will be effective when tournaments have foreign athletes participating: The audience comes to cheer in large numbers; Vietnamese athletes have the opportunity to improve their skills. This is demonstrated at the VTV Cup 2024 International Women's Volleyball Tournament and the VTV9 - Binh Dien Cup 2024 International Women's Volleyball Tournament that took place in Vietnam.
Find opportunities to compete internationally
Volleyball player Tran Thi Thanh Thuy is currently in Türkiye. She will officially participate in the national women's volleyball championship here in October 2024 when the season starts. Vietnamese badminton once had player Nguyen Tien Minh who got short-term contracts to play for foreign teams. After Tien Minh, we have not had anyone else to do so.
Tennis players Le Duc Phat, Nguyen Thuy Linh and perhaps Nguyen Thi Thu Huyen are waiting for opportunities like their seniors, however they themselves must demonstrate their best skills and have high rankings on the world rankings to be successful. Tien Minh received many invitations to compete abroad when he was ranked in the Top 8 in the world.
Vietnamese table tennis players Doan Kien Quoc and several other athletes were invited to compete abroad for short periods of time, in specific tournaments. Their professional skills were confirmed, so some teams came to invite them.
When the Vietnamese table tennis team was training in China in preparation for the Olympic qualifiers in April 2024, Nguyen Anh Tu was invited by a Chinese team to play for hire in a professional table tennis tournament. Unfortunately, due to a competition schedule in Vietnam, Anh Tu could not go to China as invited. Anh Tu also recently competed in the 2024 Kunshan International Table Tennis Tournament in Hai Duong.
In addition to football, a number of high-performance sports in Vietnam have begun to develop a set of professional standards and may issue a Regulation on the transfer of athletes. For professional sports, the Regulation on the transfer of athletes is a necessary condition to help athletes have the opportunity to compete professionally according to their choice while ensuring compliance with legal regulations.
The two players Doan Thi Lam Oanh and Hoang Thi Kieu Trinh are the ones who competed in the Thailand volleyball tournament in early 2024. The Vietnamese women's volleyball community is hoping that in the 2025 season, we will continue to have more players go to Thailand to compete and that is also a professional development for any hitter who has this opportunity.
