European 'serve machine' defeated, Ly Hoang Nam crowned champion in Mexico

Throughout his tennis career, Ly Hoang Nam has secured as many as 11 professional titles - a record difficult for anyone in Vietnamese tennis to surpass.

December 5, 2021 marked a memorable moment in the career of the biggest star in modern Vietnamese tennis history - Ly Hoang Nam, as he consecutively claimed the ITF M15 Cancun (Mexico) championship for the second time - also his fifth professional title at that point for the player from Tay Ninh.

Ly Hoang Nam entered the M15 Cancun tournament that year with high spirits after having won the title at the same venue just a week earlier. Hoang Nam participated as a defending champion and was the tournament's sixth seed, following Makoto Ochi (Japan), Tim Handel (Germany), Conner Huertas del Pino (Peru), Juan Sebastian Gomez (Colombia), and Alex Hernandez (host Mexico).

Hoang Nam's opponent in the opening match was a player three years younger - Daniil Glinka. This is a very interesting name - one of the rare players who uses a one-handed left-handed backhand, alongside stars like Denis Shapovalov or Luca Castelnuovo. The Estonian player's style is very direct: he possesses a strong serve and forehand, always trying to finish points as quickly as possible.

However, limited match experience at that time and endurance shortcomings caused the European "serve machine" to lose ground against Hoang Nam. Vietnam's number one player easily defeated Glinka 6-4; 6-1 to get a good start in the second week of competition in Mexico.

The star affiliated with Hai Dang Tay Ninh then successively overcame Joshua Sheehy (USA) and Kiranpal Pannu (New Zealand) to reach the top four strongest players. Here, he had to play both semifinal and final matches on the same day due to unfavorable weather conditions in Cancun.

In the semifinal, Hoang Nam defeated Constantin Bittoun Kouzmine (France) 6-2; 7-5, thereby facing veteran New Zealand player Rubin Statham in the championship match.

Statham, born in 1987, once ranked 279th in the world and created some major surprises in his career with wins over Chung Hyeon, Christopher Rungkat, John Millman, and Kaichi Uchida. Similar to Glinka, Statham possesses a relatively high-quality serve.

However, the veteran New Zealand player also shared the same fate as Glinka and other opponents of Hoang Nam during the two weeks in Cancun. Hoang Nam persisted with his baseline play, excelled in endurance rallies to defeat his opponent after two sets with the same score of 6-4, crowning his second consecutive title in Mexico.

After two weeks of competition in North America, Ly Hoang Nam did not lose any set, thereby earning valuable ATP points. That also served as an important foundation for the player born in 1997 to aim for greater success in 2022 thereafter - the period when Hoang Nam won up to 5 ITF World Tennis Tour tournaments, reached the final of 1 ATP Challenger Tour event, and achieved his career-best ranking at world number 231.

Currently, Hoang Nam has temporarily paused his professional tennis career, switching to pickleball and quickly making a mark. Recently, the 29-year-old player won the PPA ASIA 1000 - MB HANOI CUP 2026 tournament - defeating world number 4 Christian Alshon, and he currently ranks 14th in the PPA standings.