SEA Games 33: Vietnamese Tennis Faces Slim Gold Medal Hopes Due to… Pickleball

21/11/2025 06:55:00 PANDATV

One of the most debated topics in Vietnamese sports recently is the mass shift of top male tennis players to pickleball. In this context, the task of winning medalsSEA Games 33seems nearly impossible.

1. Lý Hoàng Nam, Trịnh Linh Giang, Nguyễn Đắc Tiến, Trương Vinh Hiển — once regarded as the brightest generation of Vietnamese tennis — now either no longer compete professionally in tennis or participate very rarely.

Notably, this wave has left a severe gap in the player pool. Vietnamese tennis currently has no representatives ranked on the ATP or ITF lists at a level competitive regionally. At the 2025 Davis Cup Group III, Vietnam had to call up a makeshift team with very young and inexperienced players such as Phạm La Hoàng Anh, Nguyễn Minh Phát, Từ Lê Khánh Duy, and Đinh Viết Tuấn Minh. The sole hope — Nguyễn Văn Phương — is insufficient to compensate for the overall lack of quality.

It’s unsurprising that Vietnam lost 0-3 to Thailand, 1-2 to Saudi Arabia, and shockingly 0-3 to Singapore for the first time in history. This poor streak pushed the team into relegation playoffs, risking demotion to Group IV (fortunately, they managed to stay up). However, this is only a symptom of a deeper problem: Vietnamese tennis is losing its male player foundation.

Why are players switching to pickleball? The answer is straightforward: better income, lighter competition schedules, higher chances of success, and stronger media appeal. Pickleball in Vietnam is booming with tournaments, sponsorships, and popular livestreams, whereas tennis suffers from a scarcity of international events, high ATP Tour costs, and almost no advancement opportunities.

Lý Hoàng Nam is now a face for pickleball brands. Linh Giang won the PPA Asia Tour Malaysia Open and launched his own racket brand. Amateur events attract large crowds, unlike the sparse audiences at Davis Cup matches. When pickleball offers what tennis cannot, players leaving is inevitable.

The last key player remaining, Nguyễn Văn Phương, is also starting to venture into pickleball

2. The Vietnamese tennis team forSEA Games 33is composed of young players with limited international experience. The five male athletes selected are Vũ Hà Minh Đức, Nguyễn Văn Phương, Nguyễn Minh Phát, Từ Lê Khánh Duy, and Đinh Viết Tuấn Minh. This lineup is considered the least experienced in over a decade.

Vietnam’s current number one player — Vũ Hà Minh Đức — is still not at a regional competitive level, as shown by his second-round exit at the M15 Kuala Lumpur after losing 0-6, 4-6 to Thantub Suksumrarn. Minh Đức is ranked outside the top 2000 ITF, while competitors from SEA Games countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines have players ranked between 300–600 ATP or within the top 500 ITF. This gap is very difficult to close.

In men’s singles, Vietnam has almost no chance to advance far, let alone contend for medals. Men’s doubles or mixed doubles might cause an upset if the draw is favorable, but aiming for gold is unrealistic. This marks a significant decline compared to SEA Games 32, where Vietnam won five medals across various events.

Vietnamese Sports at SEA Games 33: Two Targets for One "Arrow"

The absence of Lý Hoàng Nam at SEA Games — for the first time in many years — creates a clear void. Beyond lacking international experience, the young players have not had enough exposure to handle the pressure of regional competition. The VTF’s need to hold a rushed selection before the Davis Cup highlights serious passivity in team development.

But fundamentally, pickleball is not the "culprit." It is simply a destination where players turn to continue their careers amid a lack of international tennis tournaments, insufficient investment in depth, and a missing strategy for nurturing youth. The root cause lies in the system, not in pickleball.