3-Cushion
GURI - The Vietnamese player Ngo Dinh Nai is the new star in the world of three cushion. His victory over Eddy Merckx, the world champion, in the Korean World Cup was already pretty stunning, today, the cool Vietnamese played himself into the semifinals, where he meets Korean Dong Koong Kang.
Both players won their matches in the quarterfinals in fifteen innings (2.667 average): Dinh Nai Ngo defeated Jae Ho Cho (40-19), Dong Koong Kang was much stronger than Tatsuo Arai (40-16).
Even more than Dong Koong Kang, Vietnamese Ngo is the sensation of the tournament. The first performance, in which the three cushion champion of his country showed himself to the world, was the silver medal in one cushion, which he won in this year's Asian Games.
In the Guri World Cup, Ngo will show up in the semifinals tomorrow (Sunday).
Dinh Nai Ngo, who defeated Anh Vu Duong in the Vietnamese championship, is a sort of dark horse in Korea, but he frightened one after another reputable opponent in Guri.
He recorded a solid win against Murat Naci Coklu in the preliminary rounds (40-27), in the sixteenth final he jumped to victory against Eddy Merckx (40-38), in the eighth finals he escaped vs Lürfi Cenet (40-38) and in the quarterfinals he got the much better than Jae Ho Cho, the conqueror of Marco Zanetti in the previous day session (40-19).
The Vietnamese players are getting stronger and stronger in three cushion. They show it to the world. Anh Vu Duong, Xuan Cuong Ma, Quiet Chien Tran, Minh Cam Ma and Ly The Vinh are known players, who sparkled in World Cups before.
The new star, Dinh Nai Ngo, seems to be ready for a coup. He excelled in his duel with the small Korean Jae Ho Cho: after 4 innings and a run of ten, the score was 19-0. The Vietnamese ran out to 30-2 and only then, Cho could grab some points, Ngo finished at 40-19.
Dong Koong Kang, the other star in the main tournament, eliminated two former world champions in the previous rounds: Ryuuji Umeda and Torbjörn Blomdahl. The second Japanese that he met on his way, turned into an easy job. Tatsuo Arai was put on a 14-3 gap after a run of eleven, eventually, Kang won 40-16.
The two Asians meet tomorrow (11:00 Korean time) in the semifinals .