HO CHI MINH - The best of twelve winners on the last qualification day at the Ho Chi Minh World Cup is called Nguyen, like so many Vietnamese billiard players. He is listed as Duc Anh Chien on the rankings of this event, he is 36 years of age, lives in Long Thanh City, is married to fluent English-speaking Ôc Tiêu and father of a daughter of four, Duc Anh Quan. "I call him honey, ten times a day," says his wife, who is also his big fan in billiards. At the end of a day, full of thrilling matches and excitement, Duc Anh Chien Nguyen towered over all the others on Thursday evening averaging 2.500, followed by Tonny Carlsen, Can Capak and also by great players like HaengJik Kim, Dani Sánchez and two world champions who were already eliminated: Torbjörn Blomdahl and Sung -Won Choi.
But who is actually this new Vietnamese star as a billiard player? He was fifth in Carom Café in New York, two years ago, where he first showed up among his countrymen. Furthermore, he never stood on a podium and never made it into a World Cup weekend. ''I started playing billiards, free game, when I was eleven. And started playing three cushion for the first time ten years ago." How come he felt so strong at his first performance here in Ho Chi Minh? "It gives me confidence and energy to play here for my own country."
Two of the other Vietnamese go with him to the main tournament: Duc Tranh Minh as one of the group winners, Tran Thanh Tu Nguyen as one of the top three runners-up, where the young Korean Myung-Woo Cho was the best. The field of twelve winners on this last day mainly showed European dominance: nine Europeans, three Asians. Tonny Carlsen, Can Capak, Roland Forthomme and Birol Uymaz were in the top five with Duc Anh Chien Nguyen. Barry van Beers and Eddy Leppens represented the low lands, Dani Sánchez, Ahmet Alp and Dion Nelin closed the line as players with one win and one loss. Ahmet Alp signed for the elimination of Sung-Won Choi (40-30 in 23), Juan David Zapata for the elimination of Torbjörn Blomdahl. The Swede himself still won against Dion Nelin (40-33 in 29), but the Dane was the group winner on average.
Can Capak signed the verdict on Martin Horn, Barry van Beers on Nikos Polychronopoulos and Juan Jose Garcia. Duc Anh Chien Nguyen earned his top position by victories over Riad Nady (40-11 in 14) and Robinson Morales (40-18 in 18). Birol Uymaz defeated Myung-Woo Cho 40-31 in the decisive match in his group, but took the Korean star to the main draw. Roland Forthomme decided the match against Dong-Koong Kang on one carom: 40-39 in 23 and Tonny Carlsen beat Javier Palazón to be in the top three.
The top twelve:
1 Duc Anh Chien Nguyen 4-2.500-9
2 Tonny Carlsen 4-1.904-9
3 Can Capak 4-1.860-8
4 Roland Forthomme 4-1.818-7
5 Birol Uymaz 4-1.777-8
6 Duc Tran Minh 4-1.666-14
7 Barry van Beers 4-1.666-8
8 Eddy Leppens 4-1.481-7
9 HaengJik Kim 4-1.355-7
10 Dani Sánchez 2-1.767-9
11 Ahmet Alp 2-1.479-9
12 Dion Nelin 2-1.280-10
Runners up:
1 Myung Woo Cho 2-1.820-7
2 Tran Thanh Tu Nguyen 2-1.659-8
3 Dong-Koong Kang 2-1.549-7
The groups for the first day in the main draw:
Poule A:
Dick Jaspers, Dong-Koong Kang, Tonny Carlsen, Erick Tellez
Poule B: Frédéric Caudron, Duc Anh Chien Nguyen, Minh Cam Ma, Tran Thanh Tu Nguyen
Poule C: Jae-Ho Cho, Myung Woo Cho, Dinh Nai Ngo, Anh Vu Duong
Poule D: Semih Sayginer, Can Capak, Sameh Sidhom, Dion Nelin
Poule E: Tayfun Tasdemir, Jung-Han Heo, Roland Forthomme, Ahmet Alp
Poule F: Quyet Chien Tran, Dani Sánchez, Jérémy Bury, Birol Uymaz
Poule G: Marco Zanetti, Murat Naci Coklu, Duc Tran Minh, HaengJik Kim
Poule H: Eddy Merckx, Eddy Leppens, Quoc Nguyen Nguyen, Barry van Beers.
