HO CHI MINH - The 22-year-old Carlos Anguita is the former best junior in the world, one of the young Spanish talents, who has signed up for the new Korean professional tour. The Ho Chi Minh World Cup was an interesting test this week after Anguita left the junior ranks. He was the favorite of course to win his group on the first day with the unknown Vietnamese Quoc Pham Thuan and the Cambodian lady Srong Pheavy. But how surprising was the outcome after the first performances in the Vietnamese metropolis. Carlos Anguita can already pack his bags and go home. He was the last in the group after two poor losses. The Spaniard, could not live up to his reputation.
Srong Pheavy, who developed in these recent years in Korea is one of the players who can threaten the world's best Therese Klompenhouwer and Orie Hida in the coming years. Srong had a promising start against Thuan, however, she later had a setback in the game and lost 30-28 in 35. Surprisingly, the Asian lady won the next match against Anguita after a hard fight (30-28 in 40). The Spaniard, who wasn't a shadow of the raising youth star, was later knocked down by Thuan (30-25 in 24), which made the Vietnamese the unexpected winner.
The ranking after the first day was led by Vietnamese players Thanh Nguyen Phong, Tran Hung Manh and Tran Minh Duc, the number one recording four match points and 2.068 average. The only non-Asian was the Turk Ilbay Dagdelen, the other fifteen group winners were Vietnamese and Koreans. In-Won Kang, the sensation at the last Survival in Seoul, won his two matches and finished in the top ten. Eleven players closed the day with 4 match points, three with three points, two with two match points.
The winners on the first day:
1 Thanh Nguyen Phong (VN) 4-2.068-8
2 Manh Tran Hung (VN) 4-1.875-8
3 Duc Tran Minh (VN) 4-1.875-6
4 Dae Kwon Shin (Kor) 4-1.578-7
5 Ilbay Dagdelen (Tur) 4-1.578-6
6 Thanh Luc Tran (VN) 4-1.538-7
7 Tan Loc Nguyen (VN) 4-1.463-8
8 Hong Chiem Thai (VN) 4-1.395-6
9 In-Won Kang (Kor) 4-1.276-9
10 Quoc Pham Thuan (VN) 4-1.034-8
11 Thanh Nguyen Tu 4-0.810-6
12 Choonwoo Park (Kor) 3-1.764-9
13 Sung Ha Yoon (Kor) 3-1.538-10
14 Chang Woo Nam (Kor) 3-1.250-6
15 Tran Thanh Tu Nguyen (VN) 2-1.350-7
16 Huynh Phuong Linh Nguyen (VN) 2-0.753-6.
The Cambodjan lady Srong Pheavy with a win against Anguita, but out after loss against Vietnamese player
Quoc Pham Thuan, two wins against Anguita and Pheavy, which made him the group winner
Survival's hero In-Won Kang, top ten on the starting day in Ho Chi Minh