It must be emphasized that the gold medal in the women's singles at the 2024 Southeast Asian Table Tennis Championship (taking place in Thailand from November 19 to November 24) that Dieu Khanh brought home for the Vietnamese table tennis team was a big surprise.
This content is considered the most difficult of the 7 contents that coach Doan Kien Quoc and his team participated in, including men's team, women's team, men's doubles, women's doubles, mixed doubles, men's singles and women's singles.
As soon as he returned home, tennis player Nguyen Khoa Dieu Khanh had a chat with Dan Tri to talk about his journey to winning the title in Thailand.
First of all, congratulations to Dieu Khanh for winning the prestigious gold medal at the 2024 Southeast Asian Table Tennis Championship. How do you feel right now?
– Until now, I still feel like I am flying in the clouds. That is the result that makes me feel happy and joyful, because after months of tireless efforts, I have fulfilled my dream of winning the women's singles championship in the Southeast Asian tournament.
In July, I reached the Olympic qualifying finals, but when I was just one match away from the 2024 Paris Olympics, I lost. At that time, I was sad and felt very regretful. Therefore, this gold medal is a great morale booster, to show that I have had a relatively successful 2024.
Looking back at the journey to win the only gold medal for the Vietnamese table tennis team at the recent Southeast Asian tournament, many people who witnessed your matches felt breathless with excitement. Can you share your memorable experiences in the journey to conquer the throne?
– My teammates and I in the Vietnamese table tennis team mostly compete domestically, so when we get to play in an international arena, we all share a feeling of both anxiety and a desire to win. Everyone has the spirit of patriotism, so we are all very determined.
However, on the very first day of the tournament, in the women's team event, our team was eliminated from the group stage. What made the whole team feel tormented and regretful was being eliminated in the life-and-death match against the Malaysian team, and losing from a winning position.
In the final set (set 5) of the final match (game 5) against the Malaysian team, Ms. Mai Hoang My Trang led her opponent 10-7 and had a 3 match point advantage over her opponent (in each table tennis set, the player who scores 11 points first will win, in case two players have a score of 10-10, the player who wins two consecutive points after that will win).
Surprisingly, Trang still let her opponent tie the score at 10-10 and then won the decisive match. Obviously, my team just lacked a bit of luck to win and qualify for the semi-finals, which meant a medal for sure.
Having been shocked by the group stage loss in the team event, the fact that I was able to defeat all my opponents to win the gold medal in the women's singles event was also a great surprise, and even I didn't think I could do such an unbelievable thing.
During your journey to win the gold medal in the women's singles, everyone who watched agreed that every match of yours was very dramatic and difficult, with a feeling of heart-stopping suspense. So for you personally, who do you find the most difficult opponent and how do you defeat your opponent?
– For me, the match against Thai player Jinnipa Sawettabut in the women's singles quarter-finals was the most difficult, because if I won this match, I would definitely get a medal.
In terms of world rankings, Thai athletes are much better than me. Jinnipa Sawettabut is currently ranked 146th in the world, at one point he was ranked 98th in the world, while my position in the world rankings is 587, 441 places lower than him.
In this match, I just tried my best, taking advantage of every opportunity to score points. It was a match that I did not expect to win. But it seemed that I was not under any psychological pressure, so I played quite confidently to win against the player who was considered the number one candidate for the gold medal in the women's singles.
In the semi-final, I met Alice Chang from Malaysia. She is an opponent with a very tenacious defense, sapping the opponent's strength with extremely annoying cuts. Luckily, I had met her before in the Olympic qualifiers in July and I had won 4-1.
So when I entered this match, I already knew his playing style. In addition, my coaching staff and I spent time researching and reviewing his matches with other opponents to find the most effective strategy.
Therefore, when entering the match, I always think that I have to persevere to win each point, absolutely cannot be impatient because he is strong in defense, so if I am impatient, it will be easy to make mistakes leading to bad shots.
During the match, I exploited his mid-table and left-hand points, then waited for his mistake to finish the ball to win the point for me. I have to admit that it was also a very difficult match for me when I won the championship.
With this gold medal, it can be seen that Vietnamese athletes are not inferior to those of other Southeast Asian countries, although we are at a disadvantage in terms of investment, especially in terms of less opportunities to compete in international tournaments. Do you agree with the above viewpoint and what is your dream after this tournament?
– I agree with this point of view. In fact, my teammates and I in the Vietnam table tennis team have very few opportunities to compete in international tournaments. In domestic tournaments, the top players are already familiar with each other and are very familiar with each other’s balls.
So we always dream of competing in international tournaments, meeting new situations and levels so we can learn more.
I always hope that my teammates and I in the Vietnamese table tennis team will receive more investment in 2025, participate in many international tournaments to accumulate experience, thereby having the best preparation for the goal of winning gold medals at the 2025 SEA Games.
It is known that after winning the gold medal at the Southeast Asian tournament, you received many valuable rewards, including a trip to compete in the WTT (world professional table tennis tournament) taking place in Oman in January 2025?
– I feel very happy to receive the WTT competition award. For table tennis players, competing in WTT is an honor that not everyone can have. Partly because the cost of competing in WTT is very expensive, because for athletes participating in WTT in Southeast Asia, the cost of accommodation and travel is about 2,000 USD (equivalent to 50 million VND).
The cost of participation in other countries in Asia or Europe is much larger, possibly hundreds of millions of dong or more.
It is worth mentioning that the WTT competition is a knockout match, so sometimes an athlete who loses a match will have to return home. If it costs hundreds of millions of dong just to compete in one match and then return home, no athlete would dare to spend their own money to participate without sponsors.
On the contrary, when sponsors invest in athletes, they must also believe that their athletes have enough class to compete with the world's top athletes.
And importantly, participating in WTT means competing with the world's top athletes, through which I learn a lot of techniques, psychology, and competition tactics. Therefore, when I received this award, I felt extremely happy and I will try to prepare myself well in terms of techniques and tactics for this big arena.
To have Nguyen Khoa Dieu Khanh like today, you must have pursued and practiced table tennis from a very early age. Can you share what fate brought you to table tennis?
– Since I was little, when I was only 7 or 8 years old, my father took me to the courts to get acquainted with table tennis. At that time, my father saw that his daughter also liked playing table tennis, so he hired a teacher. At first, my father just wanted to train my health because I was very skinny and small at that time.
Then my teacher praised me for my talent and advised my father to invest in his daughter to become a professional athlete. However, it was not until I was 18 that I officially pursued a professional career, quite late compared to other professional athletes. I am also confident that I came to table tennis late but my achievements are quite good at this time.
Your medal collection must be quite impressive and which medal do you feel most honored and proud of?
– It’s not as “huge” as many people think. It was not until 2022 that I won my first gold medal at the national championship. But that year I won all 4 gold medals for women, including women’s team, mixed doubles, women’s doubles and women’s singles. Those gold medals gave me great motivation to conquer the next goals.
In 2023, I only won the Silver Medal (HCB) at the National Championship as well as the National Strong Teams Tournament. But in the 2023 Best Tennis Players Tournament, I won the Gold Medal. In 2024, I competed relatively successfully, winning the Gold Medal at both the National Championship and the National Strong Teams Tournament. The 2024 Best Tennis Players Tournament has not yet taken place.
In table tennis, do you have any idol players?
– As a female player, I idolize Chinese male player Fan Zhendong. Not only because he spent a long time as the world number one, but Fan Zhendong also has top-notch skills and tactics that all table tennis players in the world admire.
He is a very comprehensive two-handed player (attacking both left and right), with extremely high speed that many people love and call him a “ball machine”, especially I really like his extremely perfect backhand. Of course I idolize him because he is also very attractive and handsome.
One last question, what are your goals for 2025 and beyond?
– I aim to continue to successfully defend the gold medal at the national championship and the national strong team tournament in 2025. Next, I have to achieve the best results, specifically the gold medal at the 2025 SEA Games.
And if possible, I dream of participating in many international tournaments. Competing with the world's top athletes is the dream of every Vietnamese table tennis player.
Thank you for this conversation!
Nguyen Khoa Dieu Khanh was born in 1998, from Ninh Thuan. The 26-year-old tennis player is currently an athlete on the Ho Chi Minh City table tennis team.
Dieu Khanh is also a member of the Vietnamese table tennis team at the 29th SEA Games (2017), 30th SEA Games (2019), 31st SEA Games (2021) and 32nd SEA Games (2023).
At the 31st SEA Games at home, Dieu Khanh won the bronze medal for the first time in the women's team event.
2024 is considered a successful year for Dieu Khanh when she won the gold medal at the national championship and the national strong team tournament; reached the final round of the 2024 Paris Olympic qualifying round in Southeast Asia; won the gold medal at the 2024 Southeast Asian championship.
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