3-Cushion
HO CHI MINH - The Vietnamese city of Ho Chi Minh hosted the Molinari Open this week, a tournament featuring all the top Vietnamese players and Swede Torbjörn Blomdahl as the invited Molinari player. The winner was Quoc Thich Pham, a relatively unknown Vietnamese who was on stage with Duc Anh Chien Nguyen, Phuong Vinh Bao and Quyet Chien Tran.
The organization of the tournament was by Bidahub, Molinari was the major sponsor. Torbjörn Blomdahl explained: ’’We played a tournament over seven days with mostly Vietnamese players, three of whom were from the PBA. There were 239 players in total, the last part was played with 32. The top prize was $4,700.‘’
The Swede himself lost in the round with 16 to former world champion Phuong Vinh Bao and later in the loser's round to Vy Ngoc Chau.
Pham Quoc Thich secured victory in the final by a wide margin against Duc Anh Chien Nguyen, the number 2 a few years ago at the World Championship in Randers following Blomdahl. Nguyen is playing for the PBA for two years now. The numbers three and four on the podium were Quyet Chien Tran and Phuong Vinh Bao, two world class UMB players.
The ranking in Vietnam after this tournament is:
- Quyet Chien Tran
- Phuong Vinh Bao
- Thanh Luc Tran
- Ly The Vinh
- Duc Anh Chien Nguyen
- Van Ly Dao
- Van Phuoc Hieu Nguyen
- Pham Quoc Thich