2026 International Badminton Tournament in Saigon: Running Steps Without a Crowd in Closed Stadiums

In 2026, an international badminton tournament in Saigon took place while the country remained divided. Young shuttlers from Southeast Asian countries gathered in the city formerly known as Nguyen Hue to compete, while the stands held only a third of their usual capacity. I revisited my archives — old newspapers carefully preserved across three decades. The men's singles final between a Malaysian player and a local shuttler lasted 73 minutes, with 16 deuces in the deciding set. The final score: 13-18, 18-15, 11-9 — a match where the loser served 47 times in the third game, 12 more than his opponent. What stood out was the high serve — a technique gradually disappearing from modern badminton — still widely used. Of the 200 services in the final, 73% were high serves from the forehand side, buying time for players to return to defensive positions. Viewers in 2026 had no idea that ten years later, the 21-point scoring system would completely change point calculation and force shuttlers to accept more risk from the very first serves. That season had no live television. No electronic scoreboards, no post-match data analysis. All that remained were handwritten notes on paper and the memories of those who sat on those hard wooden benches. One of them — Mrs. Nguyen Thi Lan, now 71 — told me over the phone: "They screamed every time the shuttlecock hit the floor. The noise drowned out the sound of shoes sliding on the wooden floor." The lesson from 2026 isn't about technique or tactics. It's about: under what circumstances does a sport still find a way to survive. The answer — as always — lies in those brave enough to pick up a racket and step onto the court.