Tennis player Le Duc Phat won the Uganda International Challenge 2024

The Vietnamese badminton "phenomenon" won a dramatic victory over his Indian opponent after two sets with scores of 21-18 and 21-14.

In this match, Le Duc Phat had a difficult start when he let Raghu Mariswamy take the lead with a huge gap of 1-9.

However, in difficult times, Le Duc Phat played convincingly, saving every point to shorten the gap and level the score at 15-15.

Continuing the momentum, the Vietnamese player continuously led before breaking away to win 21-18 in set 1.

Entering set 2, the Indian player continued to start better to take the lead, but could not maintain that and let Duc Phat tie the score at 10-10.

From then on, Le Duc Phat played better, continuously leading and closing the second set with a score of 21-14, winning the overall victory to become the champion of Uganda International Challenge 2024.

The Uganda International Challenge 2024 championship is a worthy reward for Le Duc Phat after what he has shown since the beginning of the tournament.

Before stepping onto the podium, athlete Le Duc Phat won a comeback victory over opponent Fabio Caponio (Italy, ranked 90th in the world) with a score of 19-21, 21-14, 21-13 in round 2.

Next, the Vietnamese badminton “phenomenon” continued to play impressively to defeat the world's 102nd ranked American player Mark Shelley Alcala with a score of 21-18, 21-17 in the quarterfinals.

These two consecutive victories help the Vietnamese player enter the semi-finals of the Uganda International Badminton Tournament 2024, meeting Anuoluwapo Juwon Opeyori from Nigeria.

In the semi-finals, Le Duc Phat played exceptionally well and easily won 21-13 and 21-10 against Anuoluwapo Juwon Opeyori after only 26 minutes of play.

Anuoluwapo Juwon Opeyori, considered the “dark horse” of the tournament in Uganda. This player is ranked 123rd in the world but surprised everyone by defeating his opponents to reach the semi-finals, including a victory over Joakim Oldorff (ranked 73rd in the world) in the quarter-finals.

Thus, with the Uganda International Challenge 2024 championship, Le Duc Phat has 4,000 accumulated points and continues the race to the 2024 Paris Olympics.

According to the regulations of the Badminton World Federation, the top 33 athletes in the world rankings will join 5 athletes with wild cards to participate in the men's singles event of the 2024 Paris Olympics.

However, each country can only have a maximum of 2 athletes selected to participate in the tournament, so even though he is ranked outside the world's top 80, Le Duc Phat still has a chance to get a ticket to France this summer if he accumulates more points in the coming time.

As planned, the official list of athletes participating in badminton at the 2024 Paris Olympics will be announced on May 1, 2024.

Before participating and winning the Uganda International 2024, Le Duc Phat reached the quarterfinals of the Iran International and the second round of the Azerbaijan International.

Uganda International 2024 is an international badminton tournament attracting 305 players from 49 countries. The tournament will take place at the Lugogo Indoor Stadium in Kampala (Uganda) from February 21-25. The total prize money for this tournament is 15,000 USD.

Le Duc Phat is the only Vietnamese badminton player to register for the tournament to accumulate points to win a ticket to the 2024 Olympics.

Uganda Olympic Committee (UOC) President Donald Rukare said the tournament is taking place close to the start of the Paris Olympics. This is the final continental qualifier for the 2024 Paris Olympics and that is why many players from other countries are coming to Uganda to compete.

According to the plan, after the international tournament in Uganda, Le Duc Phat will return to Vietnam to prepare professionally to participate in the International Challenge 2024 in Hanoi, held from March 12 to 17.

Le Duc Phat and Nguyen Hai Dang are the two names in the main round of the men's singles event of this tournament.