Lê Đức Phát

Đức Phát was born in 1998 in Đồng Nai, Vietnam.^[1] His father was a boxer, the Vietnamese national champion from 1988 to 1989.^[3][4] He played several sports growing up, including boxing and football, but ultimately decided to pursue badminton, which was his favorite.^[3] He began competing in the sport full-time at age 16 and won his first international tournament in 2017, the Pakistan International.^[4] He reached the top 150 of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings in 2018.^[5]

However, after achieving the top 150 ranking, Đức Phát suffered injuries and was further limited by the COVID-19 pandemic, causing him to spend significant time away from the sport and resulting in him falling to a ranking of 464 by August 2022.^[5] However, he rebounded towards the end of the year, performing well at several tournaments including winning the Vietnamese national championship over Nguyễn Tiến Minh, thus making him the top-ranked Vietnamese badminton player in men's singles.^[3]

Đức Phát opened the 2023 season by being runner-up of the Vietnam International Challenge against Takuma Obayashi, and then winning at the Tajikistan International competition as well being runner-up at a tournament in Kazakhstan.^[5] He was ranked 86th in the world by February 2024 and that month won the Uganda International, coming back from a 1–9 deficit to defeat Raghu Mariswamy.^[6] He reached the semi-finals of the April 2024 Kazakhstan International Challenge and by the end of that month was ranked 74th in the world by the BWF.^[4][7] Đức Phát qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics by being the 34th-ranked player among those eligible for the men's singles event.^[7] He was named one of two flag bearers for Vietnam at the Olympics, along with archer Đỗ Thị Ánh Nguyệt.^[8]