Nguyen Thuy Linh makes impressive return after injury

Having just returned after more than a month of injury, Vietnam's No. 1 badminton player Nguyen Thuy Linh made her mark with the runner-up title in the women's singles at the 2025 Korean Masters badminton tournament.

The 2025 Korea Masters badminton tournament is part of the World Tour Super 300 system of the Badminton World Federation (BWF), with a total prize money of 240,000 USD (more than 6 billion VND). Nguyen Thuy Linh has been in the finals of this system 3 times, including the German Open (2024, 2025), Canada Open 2025, but finished second in both. In her 4th appearance in the finals of the Korea Masters yesterday, Thuy Linh (ranked 24th in the world) missed the opportunity to win the championship when she lost to Taiwanese player Chiu Pin-chian (ranked 20th) with a score of 0-2 (16/21, 15/21).

Experts and fans have reason to feel sorry for Thuy Linh because Chiu Pin-chian is an equal opponent. The final match showed that the Taiwanese player was not too outstanding in terms of expertise compared to Thuy Linh. There were even times when the number 1 Vietnamese player had the upper hand and had better control of the ball than her opponent. However, at important moments, Linh had many unfortunate mistakes, creating a chain of points for her opponent. From there, Chiu Pin-chian became more confident while Linh did not have time to adjust and had to accept defeat.

Nguyen Thuy Linh is trying hard to be selected as a high seed at SEA Games 33.

Photo: Independence

The runner-up title in the women's singles at the 2025 Korea Masters badminton tournament brought Thuy Linh a prize of 9,120 USD (about 230 million VND) from the organizers. She also accumulated 5,950 bonus points, promising to return to the top 20 on the BWF rankings announced next week.

This is a commendable achievement for Thuy Linh, especially since she just returned from a foot injury more than a month ago. Few people know that when attending the Korean Masters, she had to proactively bring a personal massage machine to take care of her feet, which had not yet fully recovered. Thanks to that, despite playing 5 matches in the tournament, the tennis player from Dong Nai still maintained a good physical foundation.

However, the coaches commented that Thuy Linh needs to have a more stable mentality to compete effectively in important matches. Not only in the final match of the Korean Masters 2025 but also in previous finals, she has not been able to maintain a good competitive state. As a result, the shots of the number 1 Vietnamese tennis player lack accuracy due to a bit of haste, tension, and pressure. To adjust the bad mental state, in addition to the athlete herself, the support of the coach also plays an important role. If this can be resolved, Thuy Linh promises to handle important situations better in big matches.

Why did Nguyen Thuy Linh not participate in the tournament with a total prize of 12 billion VND?

According to the original plan, after the end of the 2025 Korean Masters, Thuy Linh will travel to Kumamoto (Japan) to participate in the Japan Masters. This is a tournament in the World Tour Super 500 system, 1 level higher than the Korean Masters and has a total prize of 475,000 USD (about 12 billion VND).

However, with the advance in the Korean Masters tournament, plus the fear of a recurrence of the injury, and to ensure her physical strength, Thuy Linh decided to adjust her international competition schedule. Accordingly, she withdrew from the Japan Masters tournament and will return to the Australian Open taking place at the end of this month. This is also a tournament in the World Tour Super 500 system, so it attracts many strong players to participate. Thuy Linh's biggest goal is to improve her ranking to be selected as a high seed at the 33rd SEA Games taking place in December in Thailand to increase the chance of winning medals for Vietnamese badminton.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nguyen-thuy-linh-tro-lai-an-tuong-sau-chan-thuong-185251109220035674.htm