Nam wins first Challenger-level match at Vietnam Open 2016

Vietnam’s tennis star Ly Hoang Nam had home fans on their feet after claiming a 2-0 victory against France’s Maxime Tabatruong in the first round of the 2016 Vietnam Open tennis tournament in Ho Chi Minh City on October 11.

Ly Hoang Nam is the first Vietnamese player to win an ATP Challenger match.

The 6-4, 6-4 win over world no. 638 Tabatruong on Tuesday was Nam’s first triumph at an ATP Challenger competition, which is considered to be a higher level of competition in comparison to the Men’s Futures tournament.

Last year, the 19-year-old failed to create any surprises, losing 0-2 to James Duckworth (Australia) in the first-round clash.

With a victory in-hand, Nam has successfully realised the goal of securing at least one win in this year’s tournament, and added eight accumulated points to his ATP singles rating.

Next up for Nam will be a second-round crunch encounter against world no. 162 and eighth seeded Tatsuma Ito of Japan.

Earlier, Nam’s fellow Nguyen Hoang Thien had to say goodbye to the tournament following his 1-6, 3-6 defeat to world no. 395 Shuichi Sekiguchi from Japan.

The Vietnam Open 2016 is taking place in at Lan Anh Club in HCM City from October 8-16, offering US$50,000 in total prize money and 90 bonus ATP rating points for the overall champion.

(Source: NDO)