Vietnamese pickleball prodigy conquers the world

In May 2023, the name Quang Duong was first known to pickleball fans when he participated in the Atlanta Open (part of the PPA - Professional Pickleball Association). Within just a few months, he was in the top 20 in the PPA Tour men's singles rankings.

Quang Duong is becoming a formidable pickleball player in the world.

Quang Duong’s rise is easy to explain. He was originally a promising tennis player, ranked 83rd in the ITF (International Tennis Federation) junior rankings. Therefore, he possesses a good technical foundation to quickly become a professional pickleball player. The athlete born in 2006 even defeated Benjamin Johns twice at the time when his opponent was number one in the world.

However, over the past year, Quang Duong has not won any championship in the PPA Tour system. It was not until August 19 that he finally quenched his thirst for titles. In the final match of the men's doubles event of the IHG hotels and resorts Bristol Open (under the PPA Tour), Quang Duong and his teammate Christian Alshon defeated the two brothers Benjamin - Collin Johns convincingly with a score of 3-0 (11-7, 11-7 and 12-10) to become the world champion for the first time.

Quang Duong and teammate Christian Alshon lifted the championship trophy

It is worth mentioning that Benjamin and Collin are rated much higher than Quang Duong - Christian. The Johns brothers are the second seeds, 6 places above their opponents. Before this final match, Benjamin and Collin had 211 wins in PPA Tour tournaments, achieving an 88% win rate. Over the past 5 years, the Johns brothers have won 31 titles. Currently, Benjamin is the second-ranked tennis player in the world.

Therefore, the victory over Benjamin and Collin can be considered a turning point in Quang Duong's career. It is the first PPA Tour title and will give the young player a lot of motivation to develop further. After only one year of playing professional pickleball, he has risen to 7th place in the world and will certainly not stop.

Quang Duong (2nd from right) returned to Vietnam to interact with pickleball players in early 2024.

But conquering the world's peak is not Quang Duong's only goal. The young tennis player was born in the US but he always remembers Vietnam, his parents' homeland. On his personal social networking sites, he always shares many images of pickleball spreading in Vietnam and shows his happiness when this new sport is known by many people. In fact, in the athlete's biography, PPA even wrote: "Quang Duong's goal is to promote and expand the development of pickleball in Asia and contribute to Vietnam".

Quang Duong is ranked 7th in the world in men's singles pickleball.

Quang Duong always aspires to contribute to his homeland. And with the rapid development of pickleball in Asia in general and Vietnam in particular, hopefully this sport will soon be included in the competition in tournaments such as SEA Games, ASIAD... so that Quang Duong can contribute his strength to the flag, like what Dang Van Lam, Nguyen Filip (football), Truong Twins (Truong Thao My and Truong Thao Vy - basketball)... have done.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/than-dong-pickleball-goc-viet-chinh-phuc-dinh-cao-the-gioi-18524082022274466.htm