New coach Muira to take charge in friendly against Myanmar

The national men's football team will play a friendly match against Myanmar next month, according to the Viet Nam Football Federation.

New coach Toshiya Muira will present himself to the public during this match.

The Japanese coach has been travelling across the country seeking the best players.

The short list is to be released soon and athletes will be summoned on June 25. They will have about one week to learn to play fluently with each other before the friendly on July 2.

Myanmar is now playing under coach Raddy Arvamovic, who is said one of the most successful coaches in ASEAN. The Serbian has coached in regional football for nine years and won three AFF Cup trophies with Singapore.

He has trained the Myanmar team since February.

Local player unsuccessful at Roland Garros junior champs

Vietnamese tennis player Ly Hoang Nam missed a chance to advance at the ongoing 2014 Roland Garros Junior Championships in Paris after a harrowing 0-2 loss to his Chilean opponent.

Nam (world’s No. 67) was seeded No. 6 in the qualifying round where he faced off with world’s No. 792 Bastian Malla from Chile.

Despite his low world ranking, Malla was said to have considerable experience in professional tournaments as he was rated No.667 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).

Hoang Nam was quickly defeated after two sets with identical scores (2-6).

So far, no Vietnamese player has qualified for the official round of junior Grand Slam series.

Vietnamese cyclists compete in Kazakhstan

Vietnamese athletes took part in the second stage of the Asian Cycling Championships in Karaganda, Kazakhstan on May 31.

They will compete against more than 200 rivals from 26 other countries and territories.

Phan Nguyen Ngoc Trang, Nguyen Thi That and Nguyen Thi Lieu will join the women's 120km mass start event.

Nguyen Thanh Tam will test his skills in the U23 140km road race, while Mai Nguyen Hung will represent Vietnam in the men's 200km road race on June 1.

Badminton player Minh remains in world top 10

World elite badminton athlete Nguyen Tien Minh has maintained his position in the top 10, although he has dropped in the rankings by a remarkable number of points.

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) has released its latest ranking, which placed Minh at No 10, with 48,390 points.

Minh lost 2,787 points after the Vietnam team was not permitted to compete at last week's Thomas Cup because the BWF had changed their rules.

The Vietnamese were extremely surprised by his position as he had been prepared for the drop in rank.

The nation's best athlete is currently training hard for YONEX Open Japan and the Indonesia Open Super Series Premier.

The Viet Nam Tennis Federation will send three players to participate in the ViTAR-INCENTRA Open later this week in Russia.

These national athletes, Le Quoc Khanh, Lam Quang Tri and Pham Minh Tuan, will leave for Moscow on Wednesday and compete in the men's singles and doubles events on June 7-8, playing on clay courts.

The ViTAR-INCENTRA Open is an annual tournament organised by the Vietnamese community in Russia and other European countries.

Organisers have said that cash collected during the competition will be distributed to Agent Orange victims in Viet Nam.