Nguyen Hoang Thien took the Junior Orange Bowl International Tennis Championship in Florida after beating the host nation’s Mackenzie Macdonald 7-6, 6-0 in the final match on Wednesday.

He took the second set without losing a game.

“I didn’t think the second set was all that easy for me,” Thien said. “Perhaps Macdonald was exhausted and I had the advantage.”

The contest in Florida has been an launching pad for many junior players who went on to become leading names in the tennis world like Chris Evert, Jimmy Connors, Mary Joe Fernandes, Monica Seles, Marcelo Rios, Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf and Roger Federer.

Earlier in the year, Thien won the Asian U14 Boys International Tennis Federation (ITF) Group 1 second round Championship in Indonesia in March.

Last October, Thien upset several older and bigger names and wowed home fans and experts by snatching the U18 International Tennis Federation Becamex Cup in Binh Duong Province.

Thien’s father said the teenager became very interested in tennis when he was 8 and his father sent him to the Saddle Brook School at the Florida Academy to learn to play the sport when he was 10 years old.

Vietnamese tennis experts believe Thien will become the top player in the country in the coming years.

Source: Thanh Nien