Vietnamese players win number one in the world
After losing to Javier Vera in the first match, Phuong Vinh was led to 23-8 by Jaspers before the break in the second match of Group A, the morning of March 3, Hanoi time (2/3 Las Vegas time). After the break, the Vietnamese player went six to reduce the gap to nine points. However, the Dutch player continued to lead quite far, 31-21 to 34-25 and then 36-31. At the pivotal moment, Phuong Vinh went four and five points to win 40-36 backwards.
The victory over Jaspers created momentum for Phuong Vinh to win the last match of the group stage against Peter Ceulemans with a score of 40-16 after 20 rounds. At the same time, Jaspers won Vera but this result was not enough for the Dutch player to continue. After three matches of Group A, Phuong Vinh and Ceulemans led each other into the 1/8 round with two wins.
This is the first time a Vietnamese player has defeated Jaspers at the World Cup, since Tran Quyet Chien's victory at the world team tournament on March 10, 2022. Phuong Vinh is 28 years old and is ranked 86th on the table of the World Federation of Billiards (UMB). And Jaspers 58 years old, ranked number one in the world since December 8, 2018.
The second representative of Vietnam in the 1/8 round is Nguyen Duc Anh Chien, when he topped Group D. He defeated Nikos Polychronopoulos in the first match with a score of 40-38 after 17 innings, then defeated Kim Jun. -tae 40-25 after 25 turns. In the last match, Anh Chien lost to Sameh Sidhom 19-40 after 23 rounds, but still went on.
Vietnam still has two representatives in the group stage, Tran Quyet Chien and Dao Van Ly. Quyet Chien won the first two matches and is almost certain to continue in Group G, and Van Ly needs to beat Cho Myung-woo in the last round of Group E to raise hopes for the first round. The last round of these two tables will take place at 11am today 3/3 (22h Thursday 2/3, Las Vegas time).
The three-band carom World Cup in Las Vegas is the first world tournament of 2023, taking place from February 26 to March 4, including four qualifiers, a group stage and a knockout round. The first tournament was supposed to take place in Turkey in February 2023, but was canceled due to the earthquake disaster. Jaspers is currently the second richest player in tournament history, with 27 championships, behind only Torbjorn Blomdahl.
