Vietnamese Badminton Prodigy: 650-Rank Rise at 14

Nguyen Thi Thu Huyen has worked diligently over the past week and has consistently caused surprises during two international badminton tournaments in Bangladesh. This involved the Bangladesh International Challenge last week and the Bangladesh International Series this week.

First of all, the 14-year-old Vietnamese player pulled off a surprise in the second round of the Bangladesh International Challenge. Thu Huyen took on Joanne Ng, a 22-year-old Malaysian player who is currently ranked 208th in the world and was the tournament’s No. 4 seed.

Thu Huyen, who faced an opponent eight years older and more than 800 places higher in the rankings, caused a surprise by winning 21-17, 21-11.

In the quarter-finals, Thu Huyen defeated Ishita Negi, world number 228 and known as a “prodigy” in Indian badminton. Negi is two years older than Thu Huyen, but still lost with a score of 14-21, 21-17, 13-21.

The Vietnamese player ultimately only reached the semi-finals, against an opponent who was much older and hundreds of places higher in the world rankings.

Before the Bangladesh International Challenge, Thu Huyen was ranked 1042nd in the BWF women’s singles world rankings. This is understandable for a 14-year-old girl who has just started her international competitive career.

Reaching the semi-finals of the Bangladesh International Challenge, and beating a string of top 500 players, saw Thu Huyen make an incredible leap forward.

Specifically, the most recent BWF rankings, which were updated at the beginning of this week, show that Thu Huyen has risen to 392, a jump of 650 places.

This is a record-breaking leap in badminton history, both in Vietnam and worldwide, a rare achievement for any age group. It is especially remarkable considering that the person who achieved this is only 14 years old.

But that wasn’t all; Thu Huyen continued to shine during the Bangladesh International Series, which took place shortly afterwards. She won both qualifying matches.

In the first round of the tournament, Thu Huyen defeated Anvitha Vijay, an 18-year-old Indian player who is ranked 300th in the world. She promises to progress further in this tournament and make a big leap forward in the world rankings next week.