Tien Minh stops at the Tokyo Olympics

The opportunity to continue was almost gone for Tien Minh after losing to Anders Antonsen. The goal of the Vietnamese tennis player in the match against Dwicahyo is to find an honorable victory before leaving the Olympics. But against a younger, stronger opponent, Tien Minh was powerless to win the set. The 38-year-old player lost 14-21, 18-21 and broke up with the Tokyo Olympics with the bottom of Group L.

Tien Minh won the first two points, but the world No. 80 opponent Dwicahyo jumped up not long after. Despite being 20 places behind Tien Minh on the world scoreboard, Dwicahyo dominates in durable balls thanks to better physical strength, resilience and mobility. The 23-year-old tennis player often scores with powerful and accurate smashes.

Tien Minh was only two points behind his opponent after the first half of the first half, but much weaker in the second half of the set. The Vietnamese representative lost 14-21 after being unable to keep up with the relentless attacks of the juniors. In the second set, Tien Minh did not hide his determination to find the winning set to break up the tournament. The Vietnamese player’s efforts helped him equalize 18-18 at the end of the set. But Dwicahyo finished coldly at the last three points, to win 21-18 in the second set.

Tien Minh could not hide his disappointment after the defeat in the match he was expected to win. Toan lost all four sets at the tournament, Tien Minh could not break the elimination in the first round of the Olympics after four times attending the Olympics. In 2008, he lost to Taiwanese number one Hsieh Yu-hsing (Ta Du Hung) with a score of 1-2 in the round of 32, and soon left Beijing. Four years later in London, Tien Minh beat Belgian player Yuhan Tan, but lost to Indian rival Parupalli Kashyap two blank games and left the tournament. In the 2016 Rio group stage, Tien Minh won two matches, but lost to Lin Dan who was superior in terms of level.

At the age of 38, Tien Minh represents Vietnam’s men’s badminton at the 2020 Olympics as the oldest tennis player. He was praised by the BWF World Badminton Federation for his endurance, in a Facebook post on July 27. Tien Minh has never mentioned that he will retire after the Olympics, but in fact, this is almost his last Olympics.

Quang Dung – Nhan Dat

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