Nguyen Finally Finds Title Path

It took him six tries, but Garden Grove’s Tam Nguyen ended his losing streak against Long Beach Wilson’s Hoang Bui, winning the Southern Section boys’ singles badminton title Saturday night at the Orange County Badminton Club.

In their five previous meetings, three in mixed doubles and two in singles, they always played to three sets, with Bui, the defending champion in both, eliminating Nguyen every time. But Nguyen was able to take control and defeated top-seeded Bui, 15-11, 15-10.

“Finally. This feels great,” Nguyen, a senior, said. “I had a bad day on Thursday when I lost to him in mixed. Beating him today was a major goal for me.”

Second-seeded Nguyen credits staying up late at the prom on Friday night with the victory.

“I stayed up until 2 a.m.,” Nguyen said. “When I played in the San Diego tournament I got 15 minutes of sleep and won three titles. It seems like the less sleep I get the better I am. I feed off that energy.”

The fact that Bui committed 17 service errors didn’t hurt either. Using a long high serve, Bui hit it long seven times in the first set, as Nguyen jumped out to a 13-5 lead. Bui battled back with six straight points, closing the gap to 13-11, but with two consecutive points, Nguyen closed out the set.

The second set was tied, 10-10, before Nguyen opened up a 14-10 lead. After four match points, Nguyen put it away by catching Bui off guard with a dink.

“[Bui] has a lot of potential,” Nguyen said. “Maybe today was his bad day.”

With the exception of the boys’ doubles and singles, Villa Park won the rest of the titles, taking the crown in mixed doubles and girls’ singles and doubles.

May Mangkalakiri won both of the doubles titles, competing with Mike Chansawangpuvana in mixed doubles and Bonnie Wong in girls’ doubles.

Top-seeded Mangkalakiri and Chansawangpuvana ended another repeat attempt for Bui in mixed doubles, defeating him and his partner, Erin Ly, 15-3, 15-3.

Later, Mangkalakiri and Wong faced off with their teammates, Casey Peters and Alison Brown in girls’ doubles. All members of the junior national training program at the club, Mangkalakiri and Wong, rallied back after losing the first set, to win the match 14-17, 15-4, 15-9.

In girls’ singles, the Southern Section’s best player Alhambra Keppel’s Ellie Wu, is in Denmark competing in the world championships trying to earn a spot on the U.S. Olympic team. Dede Davis of Manhattan Beach Mira Costa took the top-seed, but was beaten by second-seeded Amy Nguy of Villa Park, 11-4, 8-11, 11-4.

The boys’ doubles title went to Alhambra’s Dung Huynh and Chris Ngu, who defeated Fullerton’s Anh Nguyen and Wen Mai, 15-8, 15-13.