Tennis players summoned for Davis Cup

Six athletes on the national tennis team have begun preparing for the qualifying round of the Davis Cup's Asia/Oceania Zone Group II match against Pakistan next month.

The team, including the top players selected from the national championships and the Viet Nam Masters, have been participating in a five-week training course under Australian coach Michael Baroch in Da Lat City.

The foreign physical trainer is expected to arrive within the next few days and will work to improve the athletes' strength.

The match is scheduled to be held in the city on February 14-16. Matches will be organised in five sets instead of three for Group III.

Eximbank to sponsor V-League 2014

Eximbank is set to sponsor the national football championship, V-League 2014, in the amount of VND30 billion (US$1.41 million).

These are the terms of an official sponsor contract signed on January 11 by Vietnam Professional Football (VPF) and the Vietnam Export Import Bank (Eximbank) in Ho Chi Minh City.

This is the fourth consecutive year Eximbank has sponsored the nation’s top football league, though it has discontinued its sponsorship of the National First Division Football Tournament and the National Cup, as in previous years.

V-League 2014 is scheduled to run from January 11 to August 31 and features the fierce competition of 13 professional football clubs. The champion receives a VND4 billion (US$188,000) prize, while clubs finishing in second and third places will be presented VND2 billion and VND1 billion.

In addition to the democratically assigned awards given out in previous championships, this season will offer several new prizes for the tournament’s outstanding team, the best club in training young footballers, the club with the best field, the best young player and the clubs’ best player.

The championship opened on January 11 with matches between Than Quang Ninh and Song Lam Nghe An, Dong Nai and Ninh Binh, and Hanoi T&T and Binh Duong.

Maybank Malaysia Open: New challenge for Tien Minh

Vietnam’s badminton ace Nguyen Tien Minh is taking part in his second Superseries Premier tournament of 2014, the Maybank Malaysia Open, transpiring in Kuala Lumpur’s Putra Stadium from January 14-19.

The first match promises to be a tough challenge for Tien Minh, as he has drawn world number 21 Son Wan Ho from the Republic of Korea (RoK). Minh succumbed 1-2 to Son in their latest meeting at the 2013 Yonex Chinese Taipei Open.

On January 9, Minh edged out the RoK’s Hwang Jong Soo 2-1 to make the quarterfinals of the Victor Korea Open 2014, in which he lost 0-2 to world number two Chen Long of China.

On the women’s side, top Vietnamese female player Vu Thi Trang must play the preliminary stage to earn a slot in the main round, with her first qualifying game against Malaysia’s Yin Fun Lim.

The 2014 Malaysia Open features most of the world’s prominent shuttlers battling it out for a total cash prize of US$500,000 in the men’s and women’s singles and doubles, and mixed doubles categories.