Vietnam tennis outlook dim despite first ATP event
HANOI - Vietnam has been hosting its first professional tennis tournament this week, but players and coaches hold out little hope that the sport is about to take off in the communist country. With daily ticket prices for the Vietnam Open costing more than two weeks of wages for the average resident, it's unlikely that tennis fever will quickly spread beyond its current preserve of the urban elite.
And without government support, it will be years before Vietnam produces a star who can ignite the sport as Paradorn Srichapan did in Thailand.
"What can we do? We need 50 years more if we (manage to) get the system working," said Vietnam's former women's number two Vu Thi Hien.
"We need to change everything."
Vietnam's top player Do Minh Quan, 1,411 in the ATP rankings, was the sole local hope in the 380,000-dollar ATP event in Ho Chi Minh City. But he lost in the first round on Monday.
Quan said high-level intervention was needed to get the sport off the ground in Vietnam, where only the rich have access to tennis courts in luxury hotels and residential complexes.
"Vietnam's sports authorities are not investing in its development," said Quan.
"Sports authorities should do more for young players, send them abroad for professional training and then integrate them in local clubs."
However, Quan remained doubtful about the prospects of a government-led push to produce professional-level players in a country where football is the dominant sport.
"It's tough, I'm not optimistic," he said.
Doan Quoc Cuong, general secretary of Vietnamese Tennis Players Federation, admitted the problems were formidable.
"Our biggest difficulty is funds," he said. "Players' families have to shell out from their pockets and state subsidy is paltry."
Tickets for the Vietnam Open, which began Monday, are selling at 30 dollars for the day pass and 150 dollars for the week -- a small fortune in a country where the average worker gets around 50 dollars a month.
"It's quite steep for ordinary people but not too much for players and their fans," said Cuong.
In order to develop the sport, the authorities have to put in place structures, a strategy and hand over resources. But it is far from being a priority, "because tennis has never fetched gold medals" in regional competitions, Cuong said.
However, tournament director Amit Naor was hopeful that the new tournament would be a success.
"We are having problems but we are overcoming them very well. I am very happy," he said, adding that Ho Chi Minh City may end up hosting the event for a long time.
"In 1989 when we came to Russia there was nothing there, nothing. Look at where they are now!" he said.
"In 1995, we also started from scratch in Pakistan. If people like tennis here, if they support it, if it becomes a national sport, it could become the strongest candidate in Asia."
Vietnam's tennis federation says there are about 15,000 players in the country of 82 million, 80 million of whom live in rural areas.
According to Huynh Mai Huynh, a US national of Vietnamese origin, its best players of the future could be those based overseas.
"There are few players in the country and the good ones have been the same for many years," said Huynh, Vietnam's top woman player in 2004.
But at least things have improved since 1983, just eight years after the Vietnam War, when former women's number two Hien played her first event.
"After my first tournament, I became the third best player in Vietnam," said the 43-year-old with a grin.
With the country rebuilding from the devastating war, she remembers using racquets given by people who worked for foreigners and borrowing money to pay for her travel costs.
"No one ever sponsored us. We had a hard life," she recalled.
Hien gave up her official jobs, including coaching Hanoi's junior team, after disagreements with her superiors.
She is now coaching the children of diplomats and rich Vietnamese -- making far more money than she ever did as a player.
Agence France Presse - September 29, 2005.
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