LIVE SCORE
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OFFICIAL RESULTS & INFORMATION
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Ho Chi Minh City , May 26th 2024.
Korea? Turkiye? No, Vietnam is currently the number one 3-cushion country in the world. They supplied the current world champion (Phuong Vinh Bao), the world champions for national teams (Bao and Quyet Chien Tran) and the two most recent World Cup winners, Q.C. Tran and Duc Minh Tran.
The final in Ho Chi Minh was truly excellent, with a leading role for the sensational amateur Duc Minh Tran. He hasn’t played outside of his country, and therefore he has no ranking. So he started this World Cup in the earliest qualification round and ended it in a final against a Korean with a skull as hard as concrete: Jun Tae Kim. The Vietnamese had the lead all the way, but Kim mounted a wonderful comeback to make it a match: 33-20 and 44-31 changed into 50-46 in 23/22, the Vietnamese again having a cool nerve in the closing minutes.
In a way, Tran’s victory is reminiscent of Laurent Boulanger’s win in Valkenburg in 1988. The tall Belgian was, then, also a lone amateur in a field of professionals. It hasn’t happened in almost 200 World Cups since 1988, that’s how remarkable Tran’s win is.
Many eyes in Ho Chi Minh were on Frédéric Caudron, playing his first UMB event in four years, having recently undergone hip surgery. The question: is he still one of the best, was quickly answered in the early rounds. Caudron averaged 1.622 for the event and showed both stronger and weaker moments, and a quarterfinal place reflected that well.
The semifinal between Turkish stylist Tolgahan Kiraz and Duc Minh Tran was nervy, poor in quality and riddled with bad luck for both players. Near misses, kisses and unforced errors resulted in 50-42 in 49, Tran the winner. A disappointing end to a great tournament for Kiraz, who made many new fans.
Burak Hashas too could look back on his best World Cup event ever. He was beaten fair and square by Jun Tae Kim in the second semi: 50-32 in 20/19, and can now prepare for his career in Korea. His general average of 1.820 is unheard of for an 18-year-old. We’ve not had a talent reach that level at so young an age since Dani Sánchez in the early nineties.
The best general average in Ho Chi Minh was played by Eddy Merckx: 2.314.
Merckx also recorded the event’s best match: 40 in 8 (5.000).
The tournament high run was made by Jun Tae Kim: 22. The general average for the main event was 1.597.
Ho Chi Minh City , May 25th, 2024.
Whatever happens next, the Ho Chi Minh World Cup of 2024 will be a watershed moment. The European dominance looks to be over, and the younger Turks, Vietnamese and Korean players are ready to win titles.
It’s easy to name the six or seven great players from Europe who have dominated the last few decades. But none of them are in tomorrow’s semifinals. Not one.
Jaspers – Got eliminated by an excellent Burak Hashas.
Caudron – Hit by a monster run from Jun Tae Kim: 22.
Zanetti – Fought like a soldier, but lost to the touch of Tolgahan Kiraz.
Merckx – Another victim of the coming man, Burak Hashas.
Blomdahl – The European champion could not survive the group this time.
Tasdemir – Not in the last 16. Is struggling, looking for form.
These were the quarterfinals:
Jun Tae Kim was trailing Frédéric Caudron when he found his groove and ran a majestic 22. The 21-time World Cup winner never recovered from that blow: 50-21 in 20/19.
Burak Hashas, the mega-talent who had knocked out Jaspers, repeated that stunt with a win over Eddy Merckx. The Belgian looked a candidate for the win in Ho Chi Minh, but the young Turk played like a champ: 50-41 in 24/23.
Crowd favorite Duc Minh Tran can’t stop winning. His game is so finger-licking good, people wonder why he’s unknown. Berkay Karakurt tried hard, but the Vietnamese showed nerves of steel in the final innings.
Ruben Legazpi has become one of the hardest men to beat in the circuit. But his opponent, Tolgahan Kiraz, has become one of the fan favorites, with his velvet touch and creative style. The Turk won in a high-quality match: 50-40 in 22.
In the semi’s, Kiraz will play Tran and Hashas will play Kim.
All matches can be watched on Afreeca TV.
Ho Chi Minh City , May 24th, 2024.
Eddy Merckx turns Ho Chi Minh into Formula 1.
There is a special relationship between Eddy Merckx and the Ho Chi Minh World Cup. The Belgian won here twice already, and he has a habit of putting astronomical averages in the books whenever he is in Vietnam. Today, he advanced from his group (behind Ruben Legazpi) with a jaw-dropping 2.804 and a best match of 40 in 8 innings.
That other prominent Belgian, Frédéric Caudron, also had two wins and a loss, good enough to advance. He lost by a margin to Jung Han Heo but won solidly against Myung Woo Cho and Thanh Luc Tran. Cho and Caudron will meet again in the K.O. round.
Jaspers looks good with three wins and 2 average. Legazpi, Jun Tae Kim and Duc Minh Tran also qualifying convincingly. Marco Zanetti had to work hard but he came up with the goods (run of 18) in his third match against Sidhom. Many big names did not survive the difficult Friday: Blomdahl, Bury, Tasdemir, Sidhom, Bao and Haeng Jik Kim are out of the tournament.
These will be the matches in the K.O. round on Saturday:
Jaspers – Hashas
N.C. Long – Merckx
M.W. Cho – Caudron
J.T. Kim – D.R. Kim
Legazpi – M.J. Cha
Zanetti – Kiraz
Q.C. Tran – D.M. Tran
B. Karakurt – Polychronopoulos
All matches can be viewed on Afreeca TV.
Ho Chi Minh City , May 23rd 2024.
Glenn Hofman is rapidly becoming a thorn in Frédéric Caudron’s side. They have played some highly consequential matches in the past already, and Thursday added another one, again with Hofman as a shining winner: 40-21 in 12.
It gave Hofman the group win, and it handed Caudron a ticket for the next round as the best number two of all the groups. Hyeong Kon Kim and Long Nguyen Chi ended second and third of the group winners.
Of the better-known players, Riad Nady, Gokhan Salman, Robinson Morales, Bong Joo Hwang, Jeffrey Jorissen, Peter Ceulemans and Jean Paul de Bruijn did not qualify.
Nguyen Chi Long has the tournament high run so far, with a 20.
Here are the twelve group winners, and the three best seconds that also advance:
Hofman impresses, Caudron escapes.
Glenn Hofman 4 – 2.500 – 14
Hyeong Kon Kim 4 – 1.568 – 9
Nguyen Chi Long 4 – 1.509 – 20
Ruben Legazpi 4 – 1.509 – 9
Chang Hoon Seo 4 – 1.428 – 14
Duc Minh Tran 4 – 1.355 – 6
Nikos Polychronopoulos 4 – 1.311 – 5
Pierre Soumagne 4 – 1.081 – 8
Berkay Karakurt 3 – 1.355 – 9
Tolgahan Kiraz 2 – 1.630 – 6
Chi Thanh Tran 2 – 1.523 – 7
Sam van Etten 2 – 1.355 – 7
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Frédéric Caudron 2 – 2.033 – 8
Dong Ryong Kim 2 – 1.615 – 9
Burak Hashas 2 – 1.533 – 10.
The main event starts tomorrow, with eight groups of four players. All matches can be viewed on Afreeca TV, with match results available on the websites of Five & Six and the UMB.
Ho Chi Minh City , May 22nd 2024.
You never know in advance which Vietnamese player will come out of nowhere and make a name for himself. But you can be certain one of them will: you’re in Ho Chi Minh City.
Duc Minh Tran had the day of his life, as he recorded a win in 16 and a win in 8 (!) innings, for 70 points in 26, an average of 2.692. That is unheard of in qualifications, even in Vietnam.
The seasoned Korean Hyeong Kon Kim came in a second-best group winner (2.000) and Frédéric Caudron was third with 1.944. Reputed players such as Pennör, Seleventas, and Uymaz didn’t survive today’s round.
Here are the sixteen group winners:
Duc Minh Tran 4 – 2.692 – 9
Heyong Kon Kim 4 – 2.000 – 9
Frédéric Caudron 4 – 1.944 – 8
Chi Thanh Tran 4 – 1.794 – 8
Quoc Ho Le 4 – 1.750 – 12
Duy Thanh Pham 4 – 1.666 – 9
Riad Nady 4 – 1.590 – 11
Nguyen Chi Long 4 – 1.590 – 7
Pierre Soumagne 4 – 1.400 – 8
Dong Ryong Kim 4 – 1.346 – 8
Arnim Kahofer 4 – 1.346 – 6
Park Jeongu 4 – 1.320 – 10
Lukas Stamm 4 – 1.272 – 7
Jaein Jung 4 – 1.250 – 9
Mehmet Goren 4 – 1.228 – 8
Emrullah Basegmez 3 – 1.346 – 8
Ronny Lindemann, second in his group but undefeated (1 win and 1 draw) sneaked in through the back door. Tran Thanh Tu Nguyen and Huub Wilkowski played rather well but just missed out.
Tomorrow (Thursday) is the final round of qualifications. The main event starts on Friday, with the usual eight groups of four.
Ho Chi Minh City , May, 21th 2024.
Day two of the Ho Chi Minh City World Cup was a mixed bag of confident qualifiers and people just sneaking through. You could tell by the best and worst group winner averages: they ranged from 1.875 to 0.746. There was a sigh of relief on Ali Ibraimov’s face, no doubt.
Su Yeong Park from Korea was the number one on Tuesday: he won twice and used only 32 innings for 60 points. The relatively unknown but very experienced O Takeshima from Japan was close behind: 60 points in 33. Japan has another player in the race: 2007 world champion Riiuchi Umeda, who won his group. Japanese veteran Tatsuo Arai was eliminated.
Frédéric Caudron advanced another round without having been seriously tested. His former PBA teammate Birol Uymaz struggled against Italy’s Alessio D’Agata (30-26 in 38) but he survived.
Here are Tuesday’s group winners:
S.Y. Park 4 – 1.875 – 7
O Takeshima 4 - 1.818 – 13
N.C. Long – 4 1.666 – 11
F. Caudron 4 – 1.578 – 7
C.T. Tran 4 - 1.463 – 6
Q.H. Le 4 – 1.395 – 7
P.D. Thanh 4 – 1.395 – 6
J.U. Park 4 – 1.200 – 5
E. Basegmez 4 – 1.176 – 5
R. Umeda 4 – 1.111 – 7
J.I. Jung 4 – 1.111 – 5
B. Uymaz 4 – 1.071
H. Scivacz 4 – 0.963 – 6
S. Bas 3 – 1.176 – 6
D.M. Tran 2 – 1.696 – 11
A. Ibraimov 2 – 0.746 – 5
All matches can be viewed on Afreeca TV. Full match results are available on the websites of Five & Six and the UMB. The Ho Chi Ming World Cup continues on Wednesday, at 11.00 AM local time.
Ho Chi Minh City , May, 20th 2024.
Caudron and Uymaz sail through first round.
On day one of the Ho Chi Minh City World Cup, most eyes were on Frédéric Caudron who played his first World Cup in four years. The Belgian, generally recognized as the best all-round billiard player in the world, had no trouble in his first two matches: 4 points and 1.538. Turkiye’s Birol Uymaz followed in his footsteps with 4 points and 1.428.
Neither was the day’s best player though. That honor went to Vietnam’s Van Anh Huy Pham with 4 points and 1.666. The field is, of course, is still heavy with Vietnamese talent. Of the 16 groups winners, 8 were Vietnamese.
Tomorrow young players like Ibraimov, D’Agata and Seleventas will make their appearances. Also in action: the likes of Novak, Takeshima, Umeda and Jimenez.
Day one group winners: (points, avg, high run)
1. Van Anh Huy Pham 4-1.666-8
2. Frédéric Caudron 4-1.538-7
3. Birol Uymaz 4-1.428-5
4. Chi Thanh Tran 4-1.333-8
5. SuYeong Park 4-1.304-8
6. Pham Duy Thanh 4-1.250-8
7. Nguyen Chi Long 4-1.250-7
8. Quoc Ho Le 4-1.224-7
9. Thanh Tung Nguyen 4-1.132-9
10.Ali Ibraimov 4-0.967-6
11.Satoru Yoneyama 4-0.937-7
12.Tran Thanh Tao Nguyen 4-0.937-5
13.Seung Ho Jang 4-0.937-4
14.Geon Yun Kim 4-0.896-4
15.Jeung Hi Han 4-0.789-5
16.Phi Huynh Long 2-1.000-7
All matches can be viewed on Afreeca TV. Full results available on the websites of Five & Six and the UMB.
Ho Chi Minh City , May, 15th 2024.
We all remember World Cup #200, recently in Bogotá, Colombia, with Quyet Chien Tran as the winner. Now it’s time for World Cup #201, the second of the 2024 season, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
The Vietnamese World Cup hasn’t been on the calendar all that long (since 2015), but it has a distinguished list of past winners: Tasdemir, Caudron (2x), Merckx (2x), Tran and Blomdahl. The Swede ran a 26 in his very first inning in HCM, in 2023.
For this event, the UMB has seeded the following players: Jaspers, Q.C. Tran, M.W. Cho, Blomdahl, Merckx, J.T. Kim, H.J. Kim, Zanetti, Sidhom, Tasdemir, Horn, P.V. Bao, M.J. Cha and J.H. Heo. The wildcards were given to Hong Chiem Thai and Thanh Luc Tran (local) and Jeremy Bury (ACBC/UMB).
The qualification tournament is, as usual, fully booked with some 70 players on the reserve list. It shows that the World Cup format, with its delicate mix of hopefuls and professionals, is not losing any popularity. Two players with a World Cup pedigree have returned to the UMB circuit after a stint in the PBA: Frédéric Caudron and Birol Uymaz. They will, no doubt, make a big effort to re-establish themselves on the world ranking.
The tables in Ho Chi Minh are Hollywood, the balls are Dynaspheres and the cloth is ClassOne B2 Black. The standard ranking points apply: 80-54-36-26-18-1—8.
Play starts on 20 May and ends on 26 My. All matches can be viewed on Afreeca TV. Full results are available on the sites of Five & Six and the UMB.
