Ly Hoang Nam shines, defeating a Grand Slam-level opponent at a prestigious professional tournament

This is one of the most outstanding performances in the career filled with remarkable achievements of Ly Hoang Nam - the biggest star that Vietnamese tennis has ever produced.

On the evening of January 6, 2019, at Tuyen Son Sports Village (Da Nang), the Da Nang Tennis Open Challenger - one of the biggest tennis events Vietnam has ever organized - officially commenced. Right on the first day of competition, the then top-ranked national tennis player, Ly Hoang Nam, did not disappoint fans by surprising talented German player Daniel Altmaier.

Despite being assessed to face many difficulties against Altmaier - a 1.91m tall young player with powerful serves, a one-handed backhand, and ranked 370th in the world - Hoang Nam demonstrated commendable resilience. This was not an unfamiliar opponent, as the Vietnamese player had previously lost to him at a tournament in Hong Kong. However, this rematch witnessed a clear maturation of Hoang Nam.

After three tense sets, the home representative secured a 2-1 victory with scores of 7-6; 4-6 and 7-6. The match, prolonged with many breath-taking tie-break sequences, showed the tenacity and stable competitive mentality of the player from Tay Ninh province under the immense pressure from the young European opponent.

With this victory, Hoang Nam earned the right to advance and face another German player, Sebastian Fanselow - the tournament's No. 7 seed, then ranked 323rd in ATP. Here, the most outstanding representative of the host nation could not create a surprise, losing in reverse after 3 sets with scores of 6-1; 1-6; 3-6.

More than 7 years have passed since that moment, the statuses of both Ly Hoang Nam and Daniel Altmaier have become very different. Ly Hoang Nam has now parted with professional tennis after reaching his peak in 2022, currently switching to playing pickleball and immediately entering the group of top-tier players in this sport. Meanwhile, Altmaier has continuously progressed, becoming a familiar face at top-tier Grand Slam and ATP tournaments, achieving his best ranking at No. 44, and currently being Germany's No. 2 player - only behind Alexander Zverev.

That year's Da Nang Tennis Open also attracted many notable names such as Marcel Granollers (Spain) - who once reached the top 20 in singles and was a former world No. 1 in doubles, Teymuraz Gabashvili (Russia), Vietnamese-American player Thai Son Kwiatkowski, Alexandre Muller (France) or Sumit Nagal (India) - who once won the junior Wimbledon title with Hoang Nam in 2015.

On the host side, besides Hoang Nam, Trinh Linh Giang and "Doubles King" Le Quoc Khanh also participated via special invitations. All three have now switched to playing pickleball and have made significant marks.

Daniel Altmaier is just one of the many excellent players Ly Hoang Nam has faced in his career. The list of top-tier opponents the player from Tay Ninh province has encountered also includes Hubert Hurkacz, Arthur Cazaux, Valentin Vacherot, Aleksandar Vukic, Roman Safiullin, Emil Ruusuvuori, Zhang Zhizhen, Wu Yibing, and Yosuke Watanuki, etc.