Billiards: Young talent shocks again, 8 Vietnamese players meet genius Caudron

Nguyen Hoai Phong entered the 4th qualifying round of the Ho Chi Minh City Billiards World Cup with a perfect record.

The third qualifying round of the 2025 Ho Chi Minh City Billiards World Cup will take place today (May 21). The Vietnamese 3-cushion carom billiards team has 10 players participating: Nguyen Hoai Phong, Nguyen Chi Long, Nguyen Dinh Quoc, Nguyen Nhu Le, Doan Minh Kiet, Nguyen Dinh Luan, Truong Quang Hao, Ngo Le Duy, Le Quoc Ho and Dao Van Ly.

Nguyen Hoai Phong is in Group A with Radek Novak (Czech Republic) and Gerhard Kostistansky (Austria). The talent born in 2003 continues to make a strong impression. The 22-year-old player excellently won 2 victories against foreign players, thereby convincingly getting a ticket to the 4th qualifying round.

Hoai Phong excellently advances to round 4

PHOTO: PL

In the opening match, Hoai Phong defeated Radek Novak with a score of 35-29, after 29 shots. Next, the 23-year-old player defeated Gerhard Kostistansky with a score of 35-30, after 27 shots. This result was even more convincing than in the second qualifying round (Hoai Phong won 1, lost 1 but advanced thanks to having the best score and ranked first in the group).

Lucky ticket to the next round for Vietnamese players

10 Vietnamese players took the field, including 5 names that passed the 3rd qualifying round of the Ho Chi Minh City Billiards World Cup 2025. Besides Hoai Phong, Dao Van Ly, Nguyen Nhu Le, Doan Minh Kiet and Nguyen Dinh Quoc are the names that will participate in the 4th qualifying round (the final qualifying round). Only the 16 players at the top of the table were supposed to advance to the next round. However, Dinh Quoc (1 win 1 loss, 1.783 points) was lucky to receive the wild card for the second-place player with the best record. Because in the 4th qualifying round, the Swedish "living legend" Torbjorn Blomdahl (set to appear from the 4th qualifying round) withdrew because he could not participate in the competition.

Dinh Quoc continued with good luck.

PHOTO: PL

Blomdahl ruptured his Achilles tendon.

The 'living legend' of the world's 3-cushion carom billiards - Torbjorn Blomdahl will be absent for the next few months due to a serious injury. Accordingly, the Swedish player completely tore the Achilles tendon in his right leg while playing padel for fun.

The Swedish player is expected to miss three World Cups of billiards. The tournament in Ho Chi Minh City is taking place at Nguyen Du Stadium (District 1), then the World Cup of billiards in Ankara (Turkey) and Porto (Portugal) and the 2025 World Games in China.

Dao Van Ly is the Vietnamese player who passed the third qualifying round with the best result. Van Ly won 2 matches, against Truong Quang Hao (35-34, after 21 shots) and against Son Jun-hyuk (35-33, after 23 shots). Especially in the match against Quang Hao, Van Ly had a spectacular comeback, with a series of 9 points to end the match (when he was trailing 34-26).

Dao Van Ly had a spectacular comeback against Quang Hao

PHOTO: PL

Nguyen Nhu Le also had 2 wins. Meanwhile, Doan Minh Kiet continued with 1 win and 1 draw.

Thus, the 4th qualifying round of the Ho Chi Minh City Billiards World Cup 2025 will have 8 Vietnamese players competing. In addition to the 5 players who passed the 3rd qualifying round mentioned above, the names that are predetermined to appear from the 4th qualifying round thanks to their positions on the UMB rankings include: Chiem Hong Thai, Tran Duc Minh and Nguyen Tran Thanh Tu. This is a round with the appearance of great players, especially the Belgian billiards "genius" - Frederic Caudron.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/billiards-tai-nang-tre-lai-gay-soc-8-co-thu-viet-nam-hoi-ngo-thien-tai-caudron-185250521221637406.htm