HO CHI MINH - The scoreboard showed a result that rang like a bell: no doubt in the World Cup’s final qualifiers in Ho Chi Minh that Glenn Hofman was much fitter and better than Frédéric Caudron. The Dutchman is in the very best period of his still fledgling career, the Belgian visibly still struggling with the after-effects of his double hip surgery. Hofman, with the high-profile score 40-21 in 12 innings (3.333, run 14), delivered a cruel verdict for the newly returned PBA professional. The perception at the time when they both still played for the PBA, was that Caudron was many times better than Hofman in wins and merits. What is particularly striking now in the Ho Chi Minh World Cup is that, despite very reasonable average and growing form, the Belgian giant is not yet showing the killer instinct he is so well known for.
For pure billiards fans, it is fortunate that Caudron did not have to pay for the heavy knock-down with elimination. He was the best of the runners-up in this latest qualifier, because he did score highly against Rui Costa and also against Hofman with that 40-21 in 12 still reaching 1,750. Talking about that brilliant match by Hofman, things were fairly in balance until 14-10 for Caudron (run 8), but on that score and moment, Hofman put in heavy artillery with a run of 14 (24-14) and in the next seven innings Caudron could hardly score anymore, while Hofman went on with 2, 4, 5 and 3 to finish.
The 34-year-old professional from The Hague, 22 years younger than Caudron and still so highly ambitious to climb the rankings, placed himself among the greats for the third consecutive time. Tomorrow, he will start in the main draw in a group of four with Quyet Chien Tran, Dong Ryong Kim and Hong Chiem Thai, two Vietnamese and one Korean. Frédéric Caudron gets two Koreans and one Vietnamese.
The final qualification, without the seeded players and wildcards, brought three Vietnamese, three Turks, three Koreans, two Dutch and further loners (Belgian, Frenchman, Spaniard and Greek) to the main tournament. Nguyen Chi Long was the most spectacular with a run of 20 in the match in which he eliminated Robinson Morales making that monster run in the 13th inning. Famous European players who dropped out further included Peter Ceulemans, Gwendal Maréchal, Ronny Lindemann, Omer Karakurt and Jean Paul de Bruijn.
Sam van Etten slipped in as the last group winner after the young Dutchman first lost to Quoc Ho Le (40-21 in 25), but rebounded against Maréchal 40-21 in 20 and saw the leader Le lose by a poor average. Jean Paul de Bruijn, another Dutchman, emerged with an acceptable 1.530, but lost his two matches against Hyeong Kon Kim and Bong Joo Hwang by 40-36 and 40-39.
The daily rankings with the group winners on Thursday:
- Glenn Hofman 4-2,500-14
- Hyeong Kon Kim 4-1,568-9
- Nguyen Chi Long 4-1,509-20
- Ruben Legazpi 4-1,509-9
- Chang Hoon Seo 4-1,428-14
- Duc Minh Tran 4-1,355-6
- Nikos Polychronopoulos 4-1,311-5
- Pierre Soumagne 4-1,081-8
- Berkay Karakurt 3-1,355-9
- Tolgahan Kiraz 2-1,630-6
- Chi Thanh Tran 2-1,523-7
- Sam van Etten 2-1,355-7
The top three numbers two going into the main tournament:
1 Frédéric Caudron, 2-2.033-8
2 Dong Ryong Kim 2-1,615-9
Burak Hashas 2-1.533-10
The eight groups of four players in the main draw (start Friday at 10am Vietnamese time, 5am in Western Europe).
Group A:
Dick Jaspers, Burak Hashas, Hyeong Kon Kim, Jérémy Bury
Group B:
Quyet Chien Tran, Hong Chiem Thai, Glenn Hofman, Dong Ryung Kim
Group C:
Myung Woo Cho, Thanh Luc Tran, Frédéric Caudron, Jung Han Heo
Group D:
Torbjörn Blomdahl, Sam van Etten, Myeong Jong Cha, Nguyen Chi Long
Group E:
Eddy Merckx, Ruben Legazpi, Phuong Vinh Bao, Chi Thanh Tran
Group F:
Jun Tae Kim, Martin Horn, Tolgahan Kiraz, Chang Hon Seo
Group G:
Haeng Jik Kim, Tayfun Tasdemir, Berkay Karakurt, Duc Minh Tran
Group H:
Marco Zanetti, Pierre Soumagne, Sameh Sidhom, Nikos Polychronopoulos.
Glenn Hofman, two World Cups among the best, now again in the main draw
Duc Minh Tran, recent day winner, again in top 10
Pierre Soumagne, a solid nr. 8 in the ranking after his close win over Peter Ceulemans
Frédéric Caudron could qualify as the best runner-up after big loss to Hofman
Nguyen Chi Long, one of the stars in the qualifiers with a run of 20