Ly Hoang Nam entered the quarterfinals of Challenger 80 for the first time
Ly Hoang Nam had the good fortune to support him when he met Koki - a tennis player born in 2000, ranked 1,354 ATP. Initially, he was in the same bracket as the number one seed Christopher O'Connell (102nd ATP and won the Yokohama tournament that Ly Hoang Nam was eliminated from the round a week ago). But at the last minute, the Australian tennis player withdrew.
Hoang Nam is rated higher than Koki both in terms of qualifications and experience. In turn, the Japanese player is in impressive form, defeating Arjun Kadhe (India, 568th ATP) and Yuta Shimizu (Japan, 404th ATP) in qualifying. In the first round, he continued to beat his compatriot, veteran tennis player Shuichi Sekiguchi. This match, when the score was 1-1, Sekiguchi resigned due to injury in the 3rd set.
That form was promoted by Koki on the morning of 9/11. He served the ball first and maintained the balance to the score 3-3 with Hoang Nam. In game 7, Matsuda suddenly made a lot of bad ball mistakes, let Hoang Nam get four points and won this ball game. After leading 5-4, the Vietnamese player took advantage of the serve in game 10 to win, despite fierce resistance from the opponent.
In the second set, Hoang Nam maintained his excitement, winning the first ball game without giving the opponent a chance to score. He maintained focus and confidence, not giving Matsuda a chance to overturn, before taking the second game to win 6-3 on aggregate.
This result helped Hoang Nam set a new milestone: reaching the quarterfinals of a Challenger 80 system for the first time after 14 times. He will have 16 more ATP points and a bonus of $1,460 (about VND 36 million). This score helps Hoang Nam maintain his position in the top 250 ATP and raise hopes of qualifying for the Grand Slam Australia Open 2023.
In the quarterfinals, Hoang Nam will meet the winner of the pair Benoit Paire – Yu Hsiou Hsu. Most likely, he will meet French tennis player Paire, who is ranked 179th ATP but at one time ranked 18th in 2018. Paire has attended all four Grand Slams, won three ATP 250. Possessing a height of 1, 96 m makes Paire very strong in serve phases.
