Luong Duc Thien beat the legendary player
Germany showed form on the fourth day of the test when defeating Strickland 5-1 in a convincing way. After the first break, he added the number 2 ball to put the 9 ball into the hole. In the second game, the American player could not break any marbles, letting the Vietnamese representative clear the table.
The 31-year-old player kept his form when he broke the ball, cleared the table in the next game and led 3-0. In the fourth game, after hitting the fourth ball to shake the hole, Strickland slammed his muscles and hands on the table and returned to his seat. Duc Thien took advantage of the opponent's mistake to lead 4-0.
Duc Thien could have become the first player to win two consecutive white matches at the tournament, but he used a bit of strength to hit the number 2 ball in game five. Strickland used his turn to reverse a game. But in the last game, the 62-year-old player could not break any marbles, allowing Duc Thien to clear the final goal 5-1.
A few hours earlier, the Vietnamese player won Chris Melling 5-0 in the first match after only 24 minutes. American expert Mark White considers this to be the best performance of a player he has seen at this place. "Vietnamese players hit incredible muscle lines," he added.
In the last match of the day, Duc Thien broke the winning streak with a 2-5 defeat against his competitor Skyler Woodward. After 13 rounds, the Vietnamese player ranked 12th with five victories, equal to the 10th place Wu Kun Lin but played two more matches.
On the fifth day of the competition, which started at 6pm on Friday, March 10, Duc Thien met female players Chou Chieh Yu and Jayson Shaw. If he wins both of these games, he can hope to enter the Top 10 to continue in the tournament, as the bottom six players will be eliminated after this date.
The 62-year-old American Strickland holds the record of three-time world 9-ball champion in 1990, 1991 and 2002. In addition, he has won more than 100 international titles between 1982-2018. And Duc Thien's best achievement is the Top 16 in Asia in 2022.
