43-year-old Nguyen Tien Minh remains Vietnam's anchor at Vietnam Open 2026

On the afternoon of September 9, 2026, in Ho Chi Minh City, 43-year-old Nguyen Tien Minh finished his qualifying match at the Vietnam Open 2026 with a final racket swing. Nguyen Hoang Thai Son, his younger teammate specializing in doubles, bowed his head and left the court. Minh waved to the crowd and smiled – the image of a timeless warrior. “I still enjoy every match,” he said in the press conference. That sentence seems to challenge age itself, but behind the victory lies a longer story of transition. The Vietnam Open 2026 is a BWF Super 100 tournament held from September 8 to 13. It gathers more than 300 players from 27 countries and territories, but is not a stage for the world's elite. For Vietnam, it is a chance to gain experience and ranking points for the younger generation, and also an occasion for veterans like Minh to maintain match rhythm. Minh's match had no powerful smashes, no spectacular saves. He won through intelligence. Thai Son, a doubles specialist, admitted that singles is not his strength. Minh exploited that fully: dropping shots, pushing corners, slowing the pace to make his opponent move awkwardly. A tactic using experience over youth. No tactical statistics were published, but watching his shot selection was enough to understand his positioning. More striking is the overall picture of Vietnamese men's singles. Le Duc Phat, the number-one hope, entered the tournament with knee and heel pain, needing pain-killer injections before his match. Nguyen Hai Dang was eliminated in the qualifiers. Only Minh advanced. This reveals a thin squad: a 43-year-old veteran still carrying the team, an injured core, and young players who have yet to prove themselves. Fans may be proud of Minh's spirit, but compared to the women's team – where Nguyen Thuy Linh faced 19-year-old Xu Wen Jing – the generation gap is clear. Following national and international matches for years, I have learned that the endurance of a veteran player is often a double-edged sword. It inspires but can also hide the stagnation of the youth development system. Minh at 43 still has to compete internationally – I wonder whether this is the glory of an individual or the sorrow of a badminton nation. Many argue that the national team needs new blood. But I could be wrong: perhaps Minh's continued participation is exactly what helps the younger generation observe and improve themselves? Minh himself once wrote in his tenth-grade blog: “I used to blog in tenth grade to prove I was right; now I write to prove I can be wrong.” Today, each of his wins serves as a lesson on overcoming age limits. As I often say: “Nothing bores me more than a derby fixed on paper, and nothing wakes me up more than an own goal full of humanity.” There is no fixing here, only humans fighting the law of time. Minh keeps proving that. With this victory, Minh advances to the main draw and will face Taiwan's Zhe Ying Wu. Whatever the result, Minh's story will be an emotional highlight. But looking ahead, we need more young faces. The challenge for Vietnamese badminton is not just extending Minh's career, but making Minh believe that the next generation is ready to replace him and write new historical chapters. Perhaps, during his match against Zhe Ying Wu, we will see Minh exhausting himself as usual – but on the coaching bench, who among the young watchers will be there?