HO CHI MINH – Frédéric Caudron’s first World Cup victory since 2019 had the brilliance of a gala performance. The 58-year-old Belgian world champion won the World Cup in Ho Chi Minh City this Sunday afternoon in the final against a 27-year-old Vietnamese player: Hong Chiem Thai. The home crowd witnessed a one-way match, in which Caudron shone with a run of 15 and went on to a comfortable victory. The Belgian himself defeated Marco Zanetti in the semi-final; the Vietnamese player outplayed Eddy Merckx in that round.bThe World Cup in Ho Chi Minh City was dominated by Asian players for days, but still ended with the success of the Belgian world champion, who had defeated the Korean world number 1, Myung Woo Cho, in one of the previous rounds. In the final, Caudron faced a revelation of this World Cup. The young-looking Hong Chiem Thai, with his dark locks and deep brown eyes, who lives in Ho Chi Minh City and is ranked 18th in the world, shone in the previous rounds against three world-class players: Bao, Jaspers, and Merckx.
Caudron's famous start proved too much for the home crowd's player. It started with 13-1 in 4, then 20-11 just before the break, and thanks to Caudron's super run (15), the match seemed decided on a score of 38-15 in 15. The high-quality final from Caudron's side ended at 50-25 in 22/21 innings (2.272 against 1.190, runs 15/3).
After the winning carom, Caudron raised his finger to the stands and then quickly climbed the stairs for an embrace in the darkness. The many spectators in the stands cheered for the winner and especially for the runner-up, who dethroned Vietnamese top players like Quyet Chien Tran, Phuong Vinh Bao and Thanh Luc Tran for this time. Thai bows out with a wonderful place on the podium. Korean Ja In Kang, among others, who is his sponsor with a sticker (Ja.in), calls him the friendliest Vietnamese billiards player in the entire circuit.
Frédéric Caudron currently occupies third place in the rankings of all World Cups with 22 victories, behind Torbjörn Blomdahl with 46 and Dick Jaspers with 32 wins. For Caudron, the excuse may be that he played in the PBA league for several years and was therefore not allowed to play in World Cups.
The Belgian showed his high class again last year at the World Championship in Belgium, defeating Eddy Merckx in the final for gold, but strangely enough, he was on the World Cup podium during these years without major successes. His last victory dates back to 2019, also in Ho Chi Minh City, where Caudron beat Forthomme in the final. Caudron won his first World Cup in 1997, then still for the BWA, in Oosterhout in the final against Dick Jaspers. Caudron’s first podium finish was in 1994 in Ghent, when Korean/American Sang Chun Lee was the winner.
The Belgians are doing golden business for the world rankings. Myung Woo Cho remains the leader in both the Players ranking and the Event ranking. In the Event ranking, Eddy Merckx is number 2 and Frédéric Caudron is number 4. In the Players ranking, the two Belgians are even in the top three: 1 Myung Woo Cho, 2 Frédéric Caudron, 3 Eddy Merckx.
Semi-finals
The Belgians had two irons in the fire on the final day. Eddy Merckx and Frédéric Caudron made a bid for the top spots. For Merckx, it ended early on Sunday morning against Vietnamese Hong Chiem Thai: 50-45 in 25 innings. The Vietnamese played a bizarre match against Merckx. He had a dramatic start with 3 points in his first 12 innings. Eddy Merckx partially capitalized and led 19-3. The Vietnamese opened the attack with 10 in the 18th inning (33-22 for Merckx), threw a 14 over it three innings later (41-40 for Merckx) and scored a decisive 6 and 1 in the 24th and 25th innings, where Merckx only managed to come out of the battle with 2 and 2 for 50-45 in 25.
In the other semi-final, Frédéric Caudron did what Eddy Merckx had failed to do just before. Caudron reached the final by defeating Marco Zanetti. Caudron and Zanetti played together for years in the successful French team of Agipi and were not known as best friends. The semi-final match in Ho Chi Minh was grim at times, but certainly also sporting.
The Belgian led for almost the entire match, including 21-12 and 31-16; Zanetti had many zeros on the scoreboard, but after a run of 9, the Italian came back slightly to 31-25. At the end, at 43-39, Caudron scored 2, 4, and 3, while Zanetti missed twice and lost 50-39 in 34.
World Cup overview:
Trung Hau Do Nguyen was the first leader in the rankings; in the following days, with rising averages, first Van Dao Tong, Mikaël Devogelaere, and on the day of the final qualifiers, the Korean Ja In Kang with an average of 2.352. On that day, the World Cup bid farewell to Torbjörn Blomdahl, who failed to qualify.
The main tournament with 32 players started with a magnificent TTT Nguyen, who, with 6 match points and 2,790, was the proud leader ahead of Myung Woo Cho and Marco Zanetti. The most famous players to be eliminated from the tournament were Quyet Chien Tran, Sameh Sidhom, Haeng Jik Kim, and Jérémy Bury.
Dick Jaspers emerged victorious from the first knockouts with 2,777 against Thanh Luc Tran. Do Hyeon Kim, a 17-year-old Vietnamese player, emerged from the previous days and now eliminated TTT Nguyen. Myung Woo Cho missed the cut, being defeated by Frédéric Caudron 50-45 in 21/20.
Do Hyeon Kim's advance was halted by Eddy Merckx, who won with, among other things, a top run of 20. Hong Chiem Thai defeated Jaspers, Zanetti defeated Tasdemir, and Caudron defeated Heo. The tournament concluded with two Belgians, Marco Zanetti and Hong Chiem Thai, as the sensation of this World Cup.
The results of the World Cup in Ho Chi Minh
- Frédéric Caudron 12-1.805-15
- Hong Chiem Thai 11-1.755-14
- Marco Zanetti 10-1.890-13
- Eddy Merckx 8-2.071-20
- Jung Han Heo 6-1.934-14
- Tayfun Tasdemir 6-1.902-17
- Dick Jaspers 6-1.846-12
- Do Hyeon Kim 5-1.304-10
- Myung Woo Cho 6-2.229-13
- TTT Nguyen 6-2.093-17
- Than Luc Tran 5-2.051-11
- Tolgahan Kiraz 5-1.760-11
- Berkay Karakurt 4-1.900-10
- Phuong Vinh Bao 4-1.613-11
- Martin Horn 4-1.612-13
- Nick Polychronopoulos 4-1.602-10
The highest average was for Ja In Kang with 2.355
The highest run for Eddy Merckx with 20.
The UMB events ranking:
1 Myung Woo Cho 400 points
2 Eddy Merckx 360
3 Marco Zanetti 348
4 Frédéric Caudron 307
5 Tayfun Tasdemir 294
6 Dick Jaspers 288
7 Sameh Sidhom 266
8 Berkay Karakurt 260
9 Thanh Luc Tran 256
10 Martin Horn 252
11 Jérémy Bury 218
12 Hong Chiem Thai 209
13 Quyet Chien Tran 202
14 Glenn Hofman 190
15 Jung Han Heo 185
16 Haeng Jik Kim 170
17 Peter Ceulemans 160
18 Phuong Vinh Bao 155
19 Tolgahan Kiraz 151
20 Ruben Legazpi 132
The podium with Frédéric Caudron as winner, left Hong Chiem Thai and right the numbers 3 Eddy Merckx and Marco Zanetti
Frédéric Caudron points high in the stands to celebrate his victory.
Hong Chiem Thai, the wonderful silver winner
Moment in the final between Caudron and Thai
17-year young Korean Do Hyeon Kim, a sensation in the World Cup