HO CHI MINH CITY - The luxury of two Vietnamese players in the top eight, brings the World Cup in Ho Chi Minh on the final days to a great climax. The home land has two irons in the fire with Nguyen Quoc Nguyen and the revelation of this World Cup, Minh Cam Ma, who survived two rounds in the preliminaries and is expected to shine now in the gallery of celebrities. The other finalists are Torbjörn Blomdahl, Dick Jaspers, Frédéric Caudron, Marco Zanetti, Nikos Polychronopoulos and Jae Ho Cho.
The 40-year-old Minh Cam Ma has won three national tournaments in his home land, is the number 117 in the world ranking and defeated Korean Hyung Bum Hwang in the qualifications, Murat Naci Coklu on Saturday and the Asian and Korean champion Haengjik Kim in the early morning (40-31 in 22).
Quoc Nguyen Nguyen, who has more experience in World Cups, was much stronger than Roland Forthomme (40-23 in 18) and will meet Nikos Polychronopoulos in the quarterfinals. The Greek outplayed Can Capak 40-28 in 23.
Frédéric Caudron and Torbjörn Blomdahl were the best winners in the early sessions. The Swede took the win against Hyung Kon Kim 40-13 in 13 innings, Caudron was superior against the Vietnamese Anh Vu Duong (40-24 in 12). Dick Jaspers made a strong impression against Truong Quang Hao (40-18 in 16) and Jae Ho Cho defeated his countryman Jung Han Heo 40-26 in 22.
The matches for the quarterfinals:
15:00 (Vietnam time):
Blomdahl-Zanetti
Caudron-Cho
17:00:
Jaspers-Ma
Polychronopoulos Nguyen Nguyen.