Tennis player Le Duc Phat boasts of being promoted to the rank of lieutenant

On his personal Facebook account, tennis player Le Duc Phat excitedly showed off his promotion to the rank of first lieutenant.

Tennis player Le Duc Phat - Photo: FBNV

As one of the top badminton players in Vietnam today, Le Duc Phat plays for the National Defense Sports Center 2 (Military Region 7).

At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Le Duc Phat will be remembered as the only athlete representing the Vietnamese Army to participate in the Summer Olympics in France. He was also chosen as the flag bearer for the Vietnamese delegation at the Paris Olympics.

Recently, the 1998-born tennis player excitedly showed off his military promotion on social media, with a witty announcement: "I'm promoted to first lieutenant. 16 years of dedication, forever loving this military uniform."

Le Duc Phat in soldier's uniform - Photo: FBNV

Right below the post, there were hundreds of comments congratulating Le Duc Phat, a tennis player born into a family with a sports tradition.

His father, Mr. Le Van Duc, was a national boxing champion in 1988 - 1989. From a young age, Phat was exposed to boxing and football, but eventually decided to lean towards badminton, after feeling that boxing was not suitable because... he was afraid of being punched.

At the age of 16, Phat officially joined the professional sports environment in the army. Since then, badminton has become his main path, besides being a professional soldier.

Three years later, in 2017, Le Duc Phat won his first gold medal at the Pakistan International Series at the age of 19. This achievement helped him enter the world top 150 in early 2018.

In 2019, a serious thigh injury forced Duc Phat to take a long break from competition, while the COVID-19 pandemic also continued to affect his competition schedule. By August 2022, he had dropped to 464th in the world - his lowest level in more than six years.

Not giving up, he started his journey to regain his form from late 2022 to early 2024. The strategy is to choose to compete in international tournaments in the Challenge or Super 100 system to accumulate points.

Duc Phat and Anh Nguyet - Photo: FBNV

A turning point came when he won the Uganda International Challenge in February 2024, helping him rise in the rankings and reach 74th in the world by the end of April 2024, thereby qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Also in April 2024, Phat was officially promoted from second lieutenant to professional soldier. And after more than a year, the golden boy of badminton village received another honor in the army uniform.

In his social media post, Le Duc Phat did not forget to mention Do Thi Anh Nguyet - Vietnam's top female archer. It is known that Duc Phat and Anh Nguyet have been publicly dating since 2024, and are considered a golden couple of Vietnamese sports.

HUY DANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/tay-vot-le-duc-phat-khoe-duoc-thang-quan-ham-thuong-uy-20250806204004891.htm