HO CHI MINH - The top sixteen on the second day at Ho Chi Minh World Cup had a characteristic look: seven Vietnamese, seven Koreans, one Japanese and... the German 39 year old Ronny Lindemann. His nickname is Ronny the Rocket, he is at this World Cup for the second time and feels quite at home in the metropolis, together with his two billiard buddies Martin Horn and Dustin Jäschke. "It's pretty hot and humid here for a European, but it doesn't bother me, because I work in a swimming pool for six months in the summer," explained the German after having survived on the second day in the Ho Chi Minh preliminaries as the third on the ranking with four match points and a 1.621 average.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, his friend Dustin Jäschke enters the tournament and later Martin Horn, the winner of the World Cup in La Baule last year. "We enjoy ourselves here in this metropolis. The entourage is good, the playing room perfect, the tables are fast and predictable. The traffic is a madhouse, but we're getting used to it." And about his start at the billiards, the two matches on Tuesday, against Japanese Mai Ishi (30-7 in 17) and Korean Dae Kwon Shin (30-11 in 20) hardly met with any opposition. ''I started a bit nervous in my first, but still managed to score well. And in my second game I had control from the start, I played a little defense and made a nice run of nine to finish."
The next mission for the first German in the tournament will be more difficult. On Wednesday, Lindemann faces Vietnamese Xuan Cuong Ma and Dutchman Barry van Beers. Dustin Jäschke will meet Gökhan Salman for his first performance.
On the second day, the Vietnamese and Koreans dominated the field: Nguyen Tran Thanh Tu was the best with 4 points and 1.666 for Jun-Tae Kim with 4 points and 1.621, the same average as Ronny Lindemann. The striking 0-point players this day were the Spaniard Carlos Crespo, Japanese Takeshima O and the ladies Degener and Hayashi. An old fighter today was Vietnamese Vinh The Ly, one of the first players from his country to appear in the World Cups. He won a match and lost one and finished second behind Duc Tran Minh in the numbers two in the groups.
The day ranking on Tuesday:
1 Nguyen Tran Thanh Tu 4-1.666-8
2 Jun Tae Kim 4-1.621-9
3 Ronny Lindemann 4-1.621-7
4 Quang Hai Dinh 4-1.463-7
5 Thanh Luc Tran 4-1.428-7
6 Quoc Pham Thuan 4-1.395-6
7 Dien Thanh Pham 4-1.363-6
8 Hyun Il Song 4-1.333-13
9 Kien Hua Duc 4-1.1.176-5
10 Sung Ha Yoon 4-1.153-10
11 Jungsub Kim 4-1.071-8
12 Chang Woo Nam 4-1.016-4
13 Thanh Nguyen Tu 4-0.882-5
14 Hironori Nakajima 3-1.176-7
15 Choonwoo Park 2-1.387-5
16 Sun Woong Lee 2-1.113-5
The second day in Ho Chi Minh: dominated by Asian players
The old Vietnamese fighter Vinh The Ly, back in the billiards room
The Germans Martin Horn, Ronny Lindemann and Dustin Jäschke, making fun in Ho Chi Minh