Duc Tuan’s men’s singles tennis gold medal and regret for the men’s team

After the men’s team event was defeated by the Singapore team in the group stage, Vietnam’s table tennis only had the hope of winning the gold medal in the presence of Nguyen Anh Tu and Nguyen Duc Tuan, the defending champions. Vietnamese table 2 times in a row. Both Vietnamese athletes won the right to the semi-finals.

Entering the semi-finals, Nguyen Anh Tu met again with Thai player Phakpoom. This is the athlete who lost to Tu in the men’s team match. Nguyen Anh Tu is rated higher. But unfortunately, this 40-year-old Thai athlete was very old and brave, taking advantage of Tu’s left defensive weakness. At the same time, he made full use of the hammer loop. On an unlucky day, Nguyen Anh Tu lost to the Thai athlete with a score of 2-4. Phakpoom in the final.

The second semi-final is the confrontation between Nguyen Duc Tuan and the 123rd Singaporean athlete Chew Zhe. It seems that before the cheers of more than 2,200 fans in the Hai Duong gymnasium, Chew Zhe lost himself. He played hard, failed to serve a lot. Deploying the attack lacks ideas. While on the other side of the table, Nguyen Duc Tuan played excitedly. Except for set 2, Tuan was a bit subjective when he led to 10 – 4 but let the opponent remove to 10 – 9. Fortunately, he then focused and finished the set. In the following sets, although Chew Zhe tried very hard, he could not turn the game around. The match ended with the score 4 – 1. Nguyen Duc Tuan entered the Final.

In the final match against Phakpoom, who eliminated Nguyen Anh Tu, Tuan played excitedly and cautiously. He managed to avoid Phakpoom’s terrifying left loop and play up his very good defence. Tuan eats the first 2 sets. In the 3rd set, which seems to be both a result of Phakpoom’s correction and Tuan’s lack of concentration, Phakpoom was able to remove 1 set.

The battle became tense. But in front of the cheers of the fans who were filled with the Hai Duong gymnasium, Nguyen Duc Tuan won in the 5th set, ending the match with a score of 4 – 1, winning the only gold medal for table tennis. Vietnam in this SEA Games. This success means more to Nguyen Duc Tuan when he can compete and win gold in his hometown of Hai Duong.

With Tuan’s gold medal and Tu’s bronze medal, we see that the golden expectation set for the men’s team content of Vietnamese table tennis is completely grounded. Anyway, Tuan’s gold medal also eased the sadness in the hearts of fans by the failure of the men’s team.