Nguyen Tien Minh wins Vietnam Open 2026 qualifier: The 43-year-old veteran reads the match through space

In the men's singles qualifying match played on the morning of September 9 at Nguyen Du Stadium, Ho Chi Minh City, Nguyen Tien Minh stepped onto the court with an old racket, wrapped knee bandages, and a body that had turned 43. His opponent was Nguyen Hoang Thai Son, a younger player who usually competes in doubles. After winning the qualifying round, Minh told organizers: “I am not stronger than Thai Son in strength and speed. But he is not strong in singles.” That sentence, for anyone who has followed Vietnamese badminton for years, is a compact summary of a tactical calculation. Nguyen Hoang Thai Son is not a familiar name in men's singles. On the international stage, he is usually placed in doubles, where his power, net speed, and court coverage shine. But singles is a different story. The vast space behind, the return angles that force constant body rotation, and the feel of match rhythm — things that cannot be trained in one session — become the weak points that a doubles specialist often pays for with off-beat footwork. Minh may no longer have the power to smash at 300 km/h like in his prime. But at 43, he possesses what Thai Son lacks: the ability to read an opponent's intention from his position. When the opponent sent the shuttle deep, Minh did not quickly retreat. He chose to cut the shuttle with spin, forcing Thai Son to run forward and then across the court. That style does not appear in statistics, but it wears down the stamina of a player accustomed to the short distances of doubles. What does this victory say? First, it shows that a veteran can still get through qualifying at a Super 100 event. The Vietnam Open 2026, held from September 8 to 13, is not a top-tier BWF tournament. But with more than 300 players from 27 countries and territories, it remains an important place for younger athletes and recovering players to earn ranking points. For Nguyen Tien Minh, ranked 254th in the world at age 43, many ask: Why does he still compete? The answer may lie in the way he talked about the win. Minh has admitted he no longer runs as fast as before, but he still finds joy in solving spatial puzzles on the court. Age slows the body, but experience compensates with precision in every step. Looking at the overall picture of Vietnamese badminton at this tournament, Minh's performance is a bright spot while several key players struggle. Le Duc Phat, the country's top men's singles player, still needed pain-relief injections for knee and heel injuries. In the stands, his wife watched with a worried face — a familiar image of athletes fighting through pain. His presence at the event was already a great effort, but the risk of re-injury cannot be ignored. Nguyen Hai Dang, a young face of Vietnamese badminton, stopped in qualifying after a match in which, according to experts, he lacked patience in decisive points. The presence of a 43-year-old veteran alongside younger teammates at a Super 100 event shows that Vietnamese men's singles is in transition. Le Duc Phat and Nguyen Hai Dang were expected to succeed Nguyen Tien Minh, but injuries and inconsistency have kept the generational gap wide. Meanwhile, Minh keeps competing as living proof that age is not the only barrier. In the women's singles, Nguyen Thuy Linh, Vietnam's number one, entered the tournament as a seeded player on home soil. In her match, she faced 19-year-old Xu Wen Jing. While Vietnamese men's players struggle with a lack of depth, the women's side shows a more reliable young generation. Nguyen Thuy Linh has competed in many major tournaments, and playing at home is a chance to affirm her status. From a technical perspective, Minh's victory offers an important view of the difference between singles and doubles. Many young players choose doubles because the physical demands of men's singles are huge. But when they step onto the singles court, they face problems that doubles tactics cannot solve. Nguyen Hoang Thai Son might be a durable athlete in fast doubles rallies, but when he had to cover the whole court by himself, he was guided by the veteran's rhythm. One sign that Minh's tactics were working was the long rallies. Instead of trying to finish points early, Minh often dragged his opponent into repeated returns, creating instability in Thai Son's footwork. The comment that Thai Son is “not strong in singles” was not an insult but an acknowledgment of a tactical truth: in singles, strength and speed only work when you place the shuttle in the right position. However, it is dangerous to judge Minh's form based on one qualifying match. His opponent was not among the strongest singles players, and this win does not prove that a 43-year-old can maintain that level in later rounds. Minh will enter the main draw with an expected match against Zhe Ying Wu, a Taiwanese player ranked about 200 places higher. With limited stamina, Minh needs to finish the match in two games to avoid a decider at an age where rest between points is crucial. The lesson from this match goes beyond simple tactics. It shows that badminton is changing, with Super 100 events acting as a “small fish tank” where experienced veterans and young players swim together. For Vietnam, this tournament is also a chance for local players to gain exposure without traveling far or spending too much. Attracting 300 players from 27 countries shows that the prestige of the Vietnam Open is growing in the region. Looking deeper at team building, the fact that a 43-year-old still carries the burden in men's singles shows a large gap in Vietnam's youth training system. Le Duc Phat is one of the best products of Vietnamese badminton in the last decade, but constant injuries have prevented him from reaching his full potential. Nguyen Hai Dang is improving, but not fast enough. Without a long-term strategy, Vietnamese badminton will always face the question: “Who comes after the golden generation?” In fact, countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand have always focused on developing international tournaments at home to give young players opportunities. The Vietnam Open 2026 is exactly such an opportunity. Unfortunately, key players like Le Duc Phat were not in the best physical condition to perform for home fans. From an analytical viewpoint, Minh's victory raises a counter-intuitive question: Are we too obsessed with speed and power in modern badminton? When Nguyen Hoang Thai Son launched powerful smashes, Minh did not try to counter with force. He deliberately slowed the match down. The opponent's energy was turned into gentle but sharp replies. The real game happens in the mind, not on the scoreboard. After the match, the image of Nguyen Tien Minh sitting on the bench catching his breath may have made some fans sad about his age. But if you look at his eyes when he walked out for his next match, you would see an indescribable joy. At a tournament with few spectators and no international broadcast, a 43-year-old player still has enough passion to continue. “I know I am not what I used to be, but I still want to play,” he said. That statement is enough to answer all doubts. In the coming days, the matches at the Vietnam Open 2026 will continue. Nguyen Tien Minh needs one more win to go deeper, and that would be a rare milestone in Vietnamese badminton history: a 43-year-old competing in an international tournament. For Le Duc Phat, health will be the key factor. Without thorough treatment, the jumping smashes we once saw from him will become increasingly rare. Overall, the Vietnam Open 2026 is not a decisive battle for Vietnamese badminton, but it is a mirror reflecting the current situation. On one side are experienced veterans fighting with intelligence. On the other are young talents not yet mature enough to replace them. In the gap between these two generations, Minh's generation is still burning its last drops of energy for the national cause. Sometimes, that gap itself is where the most meaningful messages are hidden. One detail analysts note is that Nguyen Hoang Thai Son's lack of singles experience was fully exploited by Nguyen Tien Minh. It is no coincidence that in international badminton, doubles players often find it very difficult to switch to singles after playing at a high level for many years. Movement patterns, energy distribution, and net-shot habits formed over many years cannot be changed overnight. Minh understood this, and he aimed at exactly the opponent's dead spot. The next risk for Minh lies in his physical condition. At 43, recovery after tough matches is not as good as in his younger days. The tight schedule forces the veteran to calculate every match carefully. In fact, many other veteran players such as Lee Chong Wei and Lin Dan also reduced their schedules after turning 35. Minh continuing at 43 is extraordinary, but it cannot last forever. More important is the symbolic meaning of Minh's presence at a Super 100 tournament. It shows that Vietnamese people do not lack will. It shows that a badminton nation without the same traditions as some Asian countries can still produce resilient individuals. But it also challenges sports administrators to pay more attention to high-performance sport, create more opportunities for the next generation, and equip them not only with skills but also with tactical thinking. There is an untold story: When Nguyen Tien Minh won the qualifier, many spectators may not have known that his opponent was a doubles player. They only saw a middle-aged man in a blue shirt, moving slowly but with cunning, defeating a tall, strong, young athlete. That contrast is the beauty of sport, and it is why we cannot judge athletes only by height, weight, or endurance numbers. Let us wait and see in the main draw, when Minh meets Zhe Ying Wu, a higher-ranked player, whether the veteran's key of experience can unlock the door. It will be much harder. Zhe Ying Wu is not a doubles specialist and is used to the rhythm of young singles players. But badminton history has seen countless veterans defeat younger opponents through intelligence. In any case, a Nguyen Tien Minh match at the Vietnam Open 2026 is a gift to all lovers of Vietnamese badminton. Finally, do not ask Nguyen Tien Minh why he does not retire. Watch him play to understand that age is just a number. For him, every match is a chance to prove that human limits are not defined by birthdays. For fans, that is more valuable than a title.