Vietnamese top tennis player Lý Hoàng Nam booked a slot to compete in yesterday’s semi-final of the singles at the Mens’ Futures F1 tennis tournament, Becamex IDC Cup, held in the southern province of Bình Dương.

Nam, world No 543, defeated Blake Ellis of Australia, world No 694, 7-5, 6-7, 6-3 in the quarter-final match after two hours and eight minutes.

It was a hard game for the 20-year-old Nam from the southern provine of Tây Ninh. His rival is only 18 and has good skills and physical strength. However Nam found Ellis’s weakness and won.

Nam will meet Duldaev Daniyar of Kyrgyzstan, world No 802, in the next round. Daniyar bested No 1 seed Ti Chen of Chinese Taipei, world No 317, in the other quarter-final.

Earlier, Nam and Chen failed in the quarter-final match of the men’s doubles after losing to Miliaan Niesten of the Netherlands and Francesco Vilardo of Italy 5-7, 6-7(5). – VNS