Lý Hoàng Nam could contest four finals in Da Nang, culminating in Vietnam’s Open team showdown with the United States. His schedule makes the last day a test of depth, recovery and judgement.
Key takeaways
- Lý Hoàng Nam has reached the men’s singles, mixed doubles, men’s doubles and Open team finals at the 2026 Pickleball World Cup.
- Vietnam survived consecutive Final Battles against the Netherlands and Australia before defeating Japan 4-0 in the semi-finals.
- The hosts will face the United States in the Open final at 7.40pm, only 80 minutes after the scheduled start of Hoàng Nam’s men’s doubles final.
By the time Vietnam walk onto court against the United States on Sunday evening, Lý Hoàng Nam may already have played three finals.
He will have faced Phúc Huỳnh in men’s singles, partnered Roos Van Reek in mixed doubles and joined Nguyễn Ảnh Gia Huy, also known as Robert Huy, in men’s doubles. At 7.40pm in Da Nang, 80 minutes after the scheduled start of that third final, he is due back for the Open team contest that will close the 2026 Pickleball World Cup.
Four finals. Four different partnerships or responsibilities. One day.
It is a schedule that turns the last day of this World Cup into a test of endurance, judgement and squad management, as well as technique. Hoàng Nam can finish it with four titles. Vietnam can finish it as Open world champions on home soil.
First, both must absorb the cost of getting there.
Vietnam’s perfect record disappears
Vietnam swept through Group A without conceding a match, beating Chile, the Cayman Islands and Colombia 6-0. The results presented a team with few visible weaknesses, several credible combinations and enough leading Asian players to overwhelm opponents before the singles matches were needed.
For three ties, the scoreboard did not argue.
The knockout rounds did.
Vietnam beat South Africa 4-0 in the Round of 32, then ran into the Netherlands and the first serious resistance of their week. The last-16 tie reached 3-3 and moved into a Final Battle, where Phúc Huỳnh, Hoàng Nam, Ken Tâm and Trang Huỳnh combined to win 20-10.
It was an escape, but a relatively controlled one. Australia took them much closer.
Nicola Schoeman and Selina Turulja gave Australia the opening match with a 20-11 women’s doubles victory over Sophia Huỳnh Trần and Trang Huỳnh. Hoàng Nam and Trịnh Linh Giang answered by beating Robert Stirling and Harrison Brown 20-16 in men’s doubles.
Quang Dương and Sophia moved Vietnam ahead with a 20-13 mixed doubles win against Zac Grabovic and Schoeman. Stirling and Turulja responded by edging Hoàng Nam and Ken Tâm 22-21.
Two matches each.
Schoeman then defeated Trang Huỳnh 20-14 in women’s singles. Vietnam were 3-2 down. Their perfect group stage had receded into the distance, and their World Cup rested first on Phúc in men’s singles.
He beat Brown 20-13 and created one last chance.
The Final Battle brought Phúc, Hoàng Nam, Trang Huỳnh and Sĩ Bội Ngọc together against Grabovic, Brown, Turulja and Schoeman. Vietnam won 20-16.
Another Final Battle. Another 4-3 victory.
The full route through those two ties was examined in our report on how Vietnam survived twice as the World Cup knockout stage found its meaning.
Until then, Vietnam had looked like the strongest side in the competition. Now they had also proved they could remain coherent when the original plan failed, the score turned against them and home advantage became pressure.
Japan receive a different answer
The response against Japan was far more decisive.
Vietnam won the first four matches of the semi-final, using Hoàng Nam, Linh Giang, Sĩ Bội Ngọc, Sophia, Ken Tâm and Quang Dương across the successful combinations.
Four matches played. Four won. The two singles contests were no longer required.
The 4-0 victory delivered Vietnam into the final and, just as importantly, prevented another long tie from adding to the physical cost of their route. For Hoàng Nam in particular, every match avoided on Saturday may matter by the closing stages of Sunday.
The United States came through the other semi-final against Hong Kong, China, who completed the Open podium with bronze. That confirmed the final anticipated when the team competition began: the strength of the host nation against the depth of the sport’s most established professional market.
WPM had identified the United States as the side with the cleaner route before the knockouts began. The Americans beat Thailand 4-0, New Zealand 4-1 and India 4-1 on their way to the final four, repeatedly changing personnel without allowing one lost match to destabilise the wider tie.
That depth was central to our earlier analysis of why Vietnam looked like the team to beat before the World Cup changed completely.
Now the two leading contenders will meet for the title.
A familiar rival comes first
No player in Da Nang faces a final-day assignment comparable to Hoàng Nam’s.
His first final begins at 10.50am against Phúc Huỳnh.
It guarantees Vietnam the men’s singles title, but also places two important members of the Open squad into direct competition before the national final. Whatever energy was preserved in the semi-final must now be spent against a familiar rival who knows Hoàng Nam’s game and has beaten many of the same leading players.
Phúc defeated Drake Palm in three games to reach the final. Hoàng Nam advanced by beating Quang Dương, another team-mate whose athleticism and reach have helped alter expectations of what Asian singles can look like.
An all-Vietnamese final is evidence of the host nation’s strength. It is also the least convenient preparation imaginable for two players who may be needed later against the United States.
Neither can approach a World Cup singles final as a warm-up. Neither can afford to treat the other as anything less than an opponent.
The depth behind the match has developed throughout the week. Our earlier examination of the draw asked what Vietnam’s strength in men’s singles revealed about the country’s growing player base.
From singles to mixed doubles
At 12.40pm, Hoàng Nam is scheduled to partner Van Reek against Jack Munro and Nicola Schoeman.
The names carry four different nationalities into the mixed doubles final: Vietnam, the Netherlands, the United States and Australia. At an event built around national identity, the professional draws have created partnerships that run across it, reflecting a game in which leading players increasingly meet on several tours and continents.
Hoàng Nam and Van Reek reached the final by defeating South Korea’s Eunggwon Kim and Mihae Kwon 15-11, 15-10. Munro and Schoeman now present a different problem, pairing Munro’s court coverage and improvisation with one of the strongest women produced by the Australian game.
Van Reek carries a demanding Sunday of her own. Before mixed doubles, she faces Katerina Stewart in the women’s singles final at 9.30am. She will enter the mixed match having already played for one title, while Hoàng Nam may have completed a long singles contest less than two hours earlier.
The standard of their recovery may be as important as the quality of their first three shots.
The shortest turnaround comes last
The schedule gives Hoàng Nam a longer break before men’s doubles at 6.20pm.
He and Nguyễn Ảnh Gia Huy reached the final by recovering from a game down to beat Quang Dương and India’s Harsh Mehta. After losing the opener 15-11, the Vietnamese pair won the next two games 15-10, 15-12.
They will face Richard Livornese Jr and Munro, a partnership that arrived in Da Nang with a substantial record of success together. Their run of four consecutive APP titles formed the subject of our analysis of why opponents have struggled to solve Munro and Livornese.
The most difficult part of Hoàng Nam’s day comes afterwards.
Vietnam’s Open final against the United States is scheduled for 7.40pm. If the men’s doubles match runs long, the recovery window may exist largely on paper. Hoàng Nam could move from one medal match into the collective contest around which the host nation’s entire week has been built.
That is where four finals become something more than an impressive statistic.
Singles demands complete ownership of the court. Mixed doubles changes the geometry, movement patterns and balance of responsibility. Men’s doubles brings another partner and another set of decisions through the middle. The team final then asks Hoàng Nam to recover for whichever assignments Vietnam require.
The difficulty is not merely playing four times. It is moving between four versions of pickleball without allowing physical fatigue to delay technical and tactical decisions that usually have to be made almost instantly.
Vietnam’s protection lies in their depth
Vietnam’s best protection is the squad around him.
The semi-final against Japan was won across six players. Phúc did not need to contest the men’s singles. Nor did Vietnam have to send out a women’s singles player.
That variety gives the hosts choices. It also distinguishes this side from one built entirely around a single star, despite Hoàng Nam’s unavoidable prominence.
Against the Netherlands and Australia, depth became tangible. It determined which combinations could rescue a tie after six matches, which four players could be trusted in the Final Battle and whether Vietnam could survive when the comfortable route through the draw disappeared.
They have passed that examination twice.
The United States will set the final one.
Sunday’s eight World Cup finals
Vietnamese players or teams appear in five of Sunday’s eight scheduled finals at Tien Son Sports Palace:
- 8am: Juniors team final, Vietnam v United States
- 9.30am: Women’s singles, Katerina Stewart v Roos Van Reek
- 10.50am: Men’s singles, Phúc Huỳnh v Lý Hoàng Nam
- 12.40pm: Mixed doubles, Jack Munro and Nicola Schoeman v Roos Van Reek and Lý Hoàng Nam
- 2pm: Seniors team final, Brazil v Spain
- 5pm: Women’s doubles, Selina Turulja and Nicola Schoeman v Domenika Turkovic and Katerina Stewart
- 6.20pm: Men’s doubles, Richard Livornese Jr and Jack Munro v Nguyễn Ảnh Gia Huy and Lý Hoàng Nam
- 7.40pm: Open team final, Vietnam v United States
The published final-day order of play lists the times as not-before starts and remains subject to adjustment as earlier matches unfold.
The programme reaches well beyond one country. The Netherlands, United States, Australia, Brazil and Spain all have players or teams competing, while the professional doubles finals combine athletes whose careers have been shaped across North America, Europe, Asia and Oceania.
Yet the day’s centre of gravity is unmistakable.
The first Pickleball World Cup held in Asia will end with its host nation playing the United States for the Open title. Vietnam have already secured an all-home men’s singles final. Their junior team will also face the Americans, and their players remain involved in mixed and men’s doubles.
It would be easy to call that dominance. The knockout rounds advise greater care.
Vietnam were taken to Final Battles by the Netherlands and Australia. Their route to the final revealed the quality of the squad, but also the margins on which team pickleball can turn once the easy matches have disappeared.
Sunday asks whether that resilience can survive an even more complicated demand.
Four finals make Hoàng Nam the obvious face of the day. They may also make Vietnam’s decisions around him decisive. At what point does using the strongest available player cease to offer the strongest team? How much can be recovered in 80 minutes? Which combinations give Vietnam the best chance if their leading man reaches the Open final carrying three previous matches in his legs?
This is no longer a story about whether Vietnam belong at the highest level of the tournament. Their professional results and route through the team draw have settled that question.
The remaining issue is what they can take from it.
Hoàng Nam has spent the week proving how many different ways he can win.
On Sunday, Vietnam must decide how many times they need him to.
Further reading
- Vietnam Survive Twice, Japan Break England Hearts as the World Cup Finds Its Meaning
- Vietnam Have Looked Like the Team to Beat. Now the World Cup Changes Completely
- Three Finals, One Sunday: Lý Hoàng Nam Moves Within Reach of a World Cup Sweep
- Vietnam Has More Than a Star as Da Nang Reveals Its Men’s Singles Depth
Chris Beaumont
Founder and Editor-in-ChiefChris Beaumont is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of World Pickleball Magazine. Chris follows the global game closely, reporting on the latest news, developments, stories and tournaments from all five continents. He also hosts the World Pickleball Podcast, interviewing people at…
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