VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam’s young tennis star Ly Hoang Nam is now ready for a professional career beginning next year, with confidence boosted by his outstanding achievements in 2015 as well as strong support from his family and Becamex Binh Duong managing club.

Top Vietnamese tennis player Ly Hoang Nam

2015 is the final year witnessing Nam’s participation in the Junior Grand Slam tournaments as from 2016, he will move on to a new page in his career as a professional tennis player. The year 2015 has seen numerous milestones for the Tay Ninh-born player as he broke several long-standing records in Vietnamese tennis. Nam became the first Vietnamese player to grab four titles at two world-prestigious competitions for juniors, winning the boys’ singles and doubles events (pairing with Alberto Lim of the Philippines) of the 25th Sarawak Chief Minister's Cup (I) ITF Junior Tennis Championship (Grade 1), hosted in March by Malaysia before repeating the same miracle at the 2015 Asian Closed Junior Championships (Grade B1) in India a month later.

Alongside these achievements, Nam also made record progress in his ITF junior rating. Accordingly, after being crowned at the 25th Sarawak Chief Minister's Cup, Nam produced a stunning jump of 15 places to 34th position in the latest world junior boys’ rankings announced on March 23. The rankings released on April 20 continued seeing Nam’s 18-step promotion to 14th in the world with 689.38 points - the best jump made by juniors in the world’s top 40.

The new ITF junior rating drove Nam to be named No. 11 seed in the boys’ singles event of the 2015 Roland Garros Junior French Championships, held in Paris from May 31 to June 6. It was also Nam’s most successful Junior Grand Slam competition as he surged into the boys’ singles third round before losing at the hands of Argentinean Manuel Pena Lopez, who was rated lower than Nam, but superior in regards to physical strength and experience in international competition.

Following the 2015 Roland Garros Junior tournament, Nam and his trainer Christian Brydniak left for training courses in Belgium and Sweden to get used to grass courts in preparation for the 2015 Wimbledon Junior Championships, being held in London, England from July 4 to 12. This was the third Junior Grand Slam of the 2015 season for Nam, after the Australian Open in mid-January and the French Open (Roland Garros) in May and June.

Despite being seeded 13th in the boys’ singles event, Nam’s lack of experience in playing on a grass court prevented him from advancing further, with a first-round loss of 2-0 (3-6, 4-6) to Patrik Niklas-Salminen of Finland – the worst Junior Grand Slam showing from Nam since the beginning of the year. Earlier, Nam had made it through to the second round of the Australian Open and the third round of the French Open.

However, with his being seeded at two consecutive Junior Grand Slam tournaments and maintaining a place in the world’s top 15 young tennis players in recent months, Ly Hoang Nam has contributed significantly to Vietnamese tennis in the international arena. These achievements will also pave a solid foundation for Nam’s professional tennis career, full of challenges in the years ahead.

Nhan Dan