HO CHI MINH - On the opening day at the World Cup in Ho Chi Minh, the two professional players Frédéric Caudron and Birol Uymaz were surpassed on average by unknown Vietnamese Van Anh Huy Pham. Both Caudron and Uymaz effortlessly qualified for the next round. The same did young German Ali Ibraimov. So 36-year-old Vietnamese Anh Huy Pham from the town of Danang city, a well-known coastal town some 1,000 kilometres away from Ho Chi Minh, was the best player on the first day in the Ho Chi Minh World Cup. Twice he was good for a nice win, against Korean Lim and against Japanese Sawaoka, 30 caroms in 17 and 19 innings, good for 1.666 on average.
The Vietnamese, a manager of a construction company in daily life, has a wife and two children. He only played in the Vietnamese English billiard championship at a snooker table and is competing in a World Cup for the first time. Directly in his first major tournament, he surprised with his outstanding performance. That makes him proud to lead the day's rankings ahead of Caudron and Uymaz.
Frédéric Caudron started his first World Cup against Dong Han Lee, winning 30-17 in 21, then continued against Myeong Gyu Oh, who came to six points in the closing stages: 30-24 in 18, bringing Caudron to a total average of 1.538. Birol Uymaz first beat Dutchman Mark van Peer 30-7 in 21 and in his second game Sung Taek Jung 30-10 also in 21, good for 1.428 on average.
Vietnamese Quoc Anh Minh was the best starter in the whole field with a win over Gyu Chan Lee in 9 innings (30-9, 3.333 average). In his second match, however, he was beaten by Ali Ibraimov in an enthralling final sprint: 30-29 in 38. Ibraimov won the group by 0.967 average ahead of his opponents with 1.255 and 1.121.
Su Yeong Park, Chi Thanh Tran, Quoc Ho Le, were other strong winners on the opening day.
The ranking with the group winners on the first day:
- Van Anh Huy Pham 4-1,666-8
- Frédéric Caudron 4-1.538-7
- Birol Uymaz 4-1,428-5
- Chi Thanh Tran 4-1,333-8
- SuYeong Park 4-1,304-8
- Pham Duy Thanh 4-1,250-8
- Nguyen Chi Long 4-1,250-7
- Quoc Ho Le 4-1,224-7
- Thanh Tung Nguyen 4-1,132-9
- Ali Ibraimov 4-0,967-6
- Satoru Yoneyama 4-0,937-7
- Tran Thanh Tao Nguyen 4-0,937-5
- Seung Ho Jang 4-0.937-4
- Geon Yun Kim 4-0.896-4
- Jeung Hi Han 4-0.789-5
- Phi Huynh Long 2-1,000-7
For Day 2, Frédéric Caudron will play in the group with Hyun Il Song and Vangelis Moulos. Birol Uymaz meets Alessio D'Agata and Radek Novak. Other players entering the tournament include Ryuuji Umeda, Sergio Jimenez, Serdal Bas, Takeshima O, TTT Nguyen, Tatsuo Arai, Emrullah Basegmez and Dimitrios Seleventas.
Frédéric Caudron had a good start with two wins in his group
Birol Uymaz, third in the day ranking, next match against Alessio D'Agata
Ali Ibraimov qualified in a strong final sprint