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HCMC continues to host billiards World Cup |
Under the trust of the UMB World Union of Billiards, the southern metropolis is still the venue for one of the World Cup tournaments this year with the presence of the top players in the world.
In 2015, Vietnam was chosen by UMB to host the World Cup for the first time, Ho Chi Minh City has always been the destination of world players except 2020 and 2021 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Some 155 top players in the world will compete in four qualifiers; then 15 players will be selected to enter the final round along with 14 top players in the world who were seeded, and three players received a wildcard to enter the final round with 32 players.
The World Union of Billiards has just published a list of three Vietnamese players including cueist Tran Quyet Chien who is ranked 12th in the world, Nguyen Duc Anh Chien, Tran Thanh Luc who received special slots to enter the finals.
According to the list, 17 players reached the final round including 14 the world’s top five players in three-cushion carom billiards. They are Dick Jaspers from the Netherlands who has been the number one in the world ranking, Italian player Zanetti who is holding the number two in the world ranking, Tasdemir from Turkey - the number four in the world ranking, Belgian Eddy Merckx – the number five in the world ranking.
The others comprise Swedish player Blomdahl - the number six in the world ranking, Korean player Kim Haeng Sik - the number seven in the world ranking), Egyptian player Sidhom - the number eight in the world ranking, Korean player Cho Myung Woo - the number nine in the world ranking, French player Jemery Bury - the number eleven in the world ranking, Vietnamese player Tran Quyet Chien - the number twelve in the world ranking, Greek player Polychronopoulos - 13th ranking in the world, Korean player Heo Jun Hang - 14th ranking in the world, Korean player Kim Tae Jun - 15th ranking in the world , German player Martin Horn - 18th ranking in the world.
Three other players including Tran Thanh Luc (45th place), Nguyen Duc Anh Chien (18th place), Abu Tayeh (Jordan, 29th place) received a special slot.
Unfortunately, two quite famous players Daniel Sanchez and Sayginer will not take part in the event because they just decided to give up UMB's tournaments and switch to competing in the PBA tournaments.
In last year's competition, Vietnam did not get success when the three best players Tran Quyet Chien, Nguyen Tran Thanh Tu, and Nguyen Ngoc Tri stopped in the 1/8 round. Billiards Vietnam's best performance at the World Cup in Ho Chi Minh City was in 2018 when Tran Quyet Chien defeated his teammate Ngo Dinh Nai to win the World Cup. This year, Tran Quyet Chien is determined to reach the top of the tournament to improve his 12th place in the world rankings.
