Giang Beats His June Conquerors. Now His Former Partner Awaits at D-Joy.

In June, Trinh Linh Giang reached a D-Joy final with Richard Livornese Jr and lost to Quang Duong and Harsh Mehta. On Saturday, Giang and Max Manthou beat Duong and Mehta for a place in another final. Livornese is waiting there, this time beside Jack Munro.

In June, Trinh Linh Giang stood beside Richard Livornese Jr in a D-Joy men’s doubles final and watched Quang Duong and Harsh Mehta take the title. On Saturday, Giang stood beside Max Manthou and helped prevent Duong and Mehta from reaching the next one.

The result sends Giang and Manthou into Sunday’s final against Jack Munro and Livornese. It brings nearly every significant name from that June contest back into Giang’s path, but in a different arrangement. He has beaten the pair who denied him then. Now he must face the man who was his partner.

D-Joy’s semi-final report identifies Duong and Mehta as the defending champions and confirms their defeat. It is the strongest result from Saturday’s doubles programme, both for the quality of the opponents removed and for what it means to a Vietnamese player who had already earned a place in the mixed doubles final.

Giang will play twice for gold on Sunday in Ho Chi Minh City. Neither title is his yet. Saturday gave the second attempt a history that stretches across two D-Joy legs and last week’s World Cup.

The June final that changed Giang’s place

Giang did not begin June’s D-Joy men’s doubles event expecting to partner Livornese. Jack Munro, who had been due to play alongside the American, could not compete. Giang stepped in. Ho Chi Minh City television reported the substitution as the replacement pair advanced through the draw.

They reached the final, where Duong and Mehta beat them to claim the men’s doubles title. Giang had made an unexpected partnership work well enough to reach the last match. He had not found a way past the pair who won it.

Those opponents returned to the third leg as defending champions. Giang returned with a different partner, though Manthou was hardly unfamiliar. They had played men’s doubles together at the World Cup in Da Nang on 1 September, losing their quarter-final to Brandon Lane and Ryler DeHeart 15-10, 15-11. Munro and Livornese won that World Cup event, beating Lý Hoàng Nam and Nguyễn Anh Gia Huy in the final.

The sequence matters because it removes the easy claim that Giang and Manthou somehow became an instant partnership after competing against one another on Friday. Their doubles work had already been tested in Da Nang. D-Joy offered them another chance, this time in the tournament where Giang had lost a final to Duong and Mehta.

First Camron and Marceau, then the holders

Giang and Manthou’s route through Saturday included a quarter-final against Ronan Camron and Zack Marceau. Camron had already reached the men’s singles final against Drake Palm, while Marceau had played alongside him at the World Cup. D-Joy’s match clip identifies their quarter-final meeting.

Giang and Manthou advanced to face Duong and Mehta in the semi-finals. That match carried more than the usual reward of a final place. Duong and Mehta had won June’s D-Joy title by beating Giang and Livornese. Giang was now trying to stop them beside the man with whom he had fallen short at the World Cup.

He and Manthou did stop them. The available organiser report confirms the result but does not provide a complete scoreline or a reliable account of the decisive passage. The outcome needs no invented rally to make it consequential. D-Joy’s defending champions were out, and one of the players they had beaten for the previous title had taken their place.

That is Saturday’s achievement. Sunday will determine whether Giang and Manthou can turn it into something more.

Manthou’s Friday looked very different

There had been a pause in their partnership between Da Nang and Saturday’s run. On Friday at D-Joy, Giang and Domenika Turkovic faced Manthou and Shelby Bates in the mixed doubles semi-final. Giang and Turkovic won 11-8, 11-3.

Earlier in that draw, Giang and Turkovic had been pushed into a deciding game by Harsh Mehta and Pei Chuan Kao before coming through 11-4, 10-12, 11-8. They then beat Manthou and Bates to secure a final against Bobbi Oshiro-Alconcel and Brandon Lane. WPM’s Friday report followed both finalist pairs through those matches.

The mixed result makes Saturday’s reunion with Manthou a striking part of Giang’s week, but it tells us nothing certain about how the two men felt when they resumed playing together. They had already been partners at the World Cup. What can be measured is the improvement in their outcome: from a quarter-final exit in Da Nang to a D-Joy final after beating the defending champions.

Giang’s two Sunday matches now ask different things of him. He and Turkovic have a mixed doubles run built around recovery from a difficult quarter-final. He and Manthou have a men’s doubles run distinguished by the holders they removed. Both partnerships have earned the chance to finish their work.

Livornese returns, with Munro beside him

Munro and Livornese give the men’s doubles final an opponent with recent winning form. They claimed World Cup gold in Da Nang on 6 September, then reached another final together in Ho Chi Minh City. For Giang, Livornese’s presence brings June back into view. He once occupied the vacant place beside him. On Sunday he will try to beat him.

There is no need to dress that change up as a personal dispute. No public account establishes one. Tournament partnerships shift, particularly during a run of closely spaced events. The competitive relationships are enough: Giang lost a D-Joy final with Livornese to Duong and Mehta. He has beaten Duong and Mehta with Manthou. Munro and Livornese are his last opponents.

They may prove much harder to beat than the pleasing symmetry of that sequence suggests. World Cup gold is a recent result against a strong field, and Giang and Manthou’s defeat in Da Nang is a reminder that playing well together does not guarantee progress through every draw. The final deserves to be judged on what happens in it, rather than treated as the inevitable completion of June’s story.

Stewart and Glozman reach another women’s final

Saturday also completed the women’s doubles final. Megan Fudge and Vivian Glozman will meet Katerina Stewart and Glauka Carvajal Lane, according to D-Joy’s published pairing.

The names carry their own recent D-Joy history. At June’s leg, Glozman won the women’s doubles title with Roos van Reek, beating Fudge and Turkovic in the final. Glozman and Fudge will now pursue a title together, while Stewart arrives with another final already secured.

Stewart faces Trang Huynh in women’s singles. She reached that match by beating Oshiro-Alconcel 11-3, 5-11, 11-3. Huynh beat Pei Chuan Kao 11-1, 11-6 to guarantee a Vietnamese player in the singles final. WPM reported the two routes when those matches were completed.

Stewart therefore joins Giang among the players with two title matches to manage. Their tasks are not interchangeable. Giang changes partners between mixed and men’s doubles. Stewart moves from a singles final, where every decision belongs to her, into a partnership with Carvajal Lane against Fudge and Glozman.

What Saturday has already settled

Three of Sunday’s professional title matches will contain a Vietnamese player. Huynh faces Stewart in women’s singles. Giang and Turkovic face Oshiro-Alconcel and Lane in mixed doubles. Giang and Manthou face Munro and Livornese in men’s doubles. Camron and Palm contest the men’s singles final, while the two women’s doubles pairs complete the programme.

That is a substantial home presence at the end of an international event. It is not yet a home title count. The distinction belongs to Sunday’s coverage.

Saturday’s result can stand by itself. Giang and Manthou went through Camron and Marceau, then beat the pair who had denied Giang the previous D-Joy men’s doubles title. Giang will walk into another final to find his June partner on the other side of the net.

The last match may give that history a different ending. For now, getting there has already changed it.

Further reading

• Trinh Linh Giang Reaches D-Joy Mixed Doubles Final
• Camron and Palm Set the Final as Trang Huynh Keeps Vietnam in the Fight at D-Joy
• HTV: Giang replaces Munro at D-Joy Leg 2

Chris Beaumont

Founder and Editor-in-Chief

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Chris 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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