Four players in the world’s top 100, including Jaziri Malek (Tunisia, the world’s No. 55), Sela Dubi (Israel, the world’s No. 70), Daniel Taro (Japan, the world’s No. 88) and Jordan Thompson (Australia, the world’s No. 95) will be participating in the 2016 Vietnam Open tennis tournament from October 8-16.

The ATP Challenger-level event is set to be played at Lan Anh Club in Ho Chi Minh City, offering US$50,000 in total prize money and 90 bonus ATP rating points for the overall champion.

The presence of Sergiy Stakhovsky (Ukraine, the world’s No. 119), who surprisingly beat Swiss legend Roger Federer in the second round of the 2013 Wimbledon, is also expected to be among major attractions to Vietnamese tennis lovers.

Vietnamese tennis ace Ly Hoang Nam (the world’s No. 701) has earned a wild card into the main round of the men’s singles event, alongside fellow Nguyen Hoang Thien. The duo have also got an automatic bye to the doubles main round, together with another Vietnamese pair—Pham Minh Tuan and Nguyen Dac Tien.

Nam was crowned both the singles and doubles champion at the recent Vietnam F5 Futures in Binh Duong province, which lifted him up an incredible 228 places to the 701st position in the latest ATP rankings, announced earlier this week.

However, the Tay Ninh–born player is predicted to face numerous challenges at the upcoming Vietnam Open, which is at a much higher level (ATP Challenger) than Men’s Futures.

Last year, Nam failed to create any surprise, losing 0-2 to James Duckworth (Australia) in the first round. He is eyeing at least one win at this year’s tournament.

Nhan Dan