Lê Đức Phát was eliminated in his very first match after marrying the archery beauty queen.

Vietnam’s second-ranked men’s singles badminton player had a challenging start to the 2026 season.

Lê Đức Phát (world rank 107) — Vietnam’s second-best male singles badminton player according to the BWF rankings — was knocked out in the first round of the 2026 Singapore International Challenge after losing 0-2 (15-21; 17-21) to Dhruv Negi (India, world rank 199) on the evening of February 25th, Hanoi time.

Although favored over his opponent before the match, Lê Đức Phát started confidently and gained an early lead at 3-1 and 6-4. However, from the score 9-7 in his favor, the Vietnamese player suddenly lost momentum. He allowed Negi to score 5 consecutive points, then narrowed the gap to 2 points, only to lose control again and drop another 5 points during the acceleration phase, ultimately losing the first game 15-21.

The second game was fairly competitive, with the decisive difference emerging after the mid-set timeout, unfortunately in favor of Dhruv Negi. The Indian player scored a 6-point streak to pull away, creating a significant advantage.

Despite efforts from the military-affiliated player to close the gap to 17-18, he then lost 3 points in a row and accepted defeat after two games.

The Singapore International Challenge was Lê Đức Phát’s first tournament of 2026. Prior to this, although he did not play any official matches, Đức Phát had a busy but joyful schedule as he successfully proposed to archery beauty queen Đỗ Thị Ánh Nguyệtand soon after “brought her home.”

In another development at this year’s Singapore International Challenge, Vietnamese badminton legend Nguyễn Tiến Minh impressively won two qualifying matches but failed to upset top seed Sholeh Aidil (Malaysia, world rank 46). Vietnam’s top hope in this tournament, Nguyễn Hải Đăng, needed three games to defeat Raghu Mariswamy (India, world rank 184).

On February 26th, several notable Vietnamese badminton players will compete, including Hải Đăng, Vũ Thị Trang, the pairs Nguyễn Đình Hoàng/Trần Đình Mạnh, and Phạm Thị Diệu Ly/Phạm Thị Khánh, among others.