HO CHI MINH CITY - The 36-year-old Vietnamese Duong Anh Vu played his first World Cup in 2004 and was the forerunner of the new generation of billiard players in his country. For the second World Cup in a row in the metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City, the world regulars are gathering to get ready for action in the new three cushion stronghold from 16 to 22 May, following the victory of Tayfun Tasdemir there last year. The city in the southeast of Vietnam, on the west bank of the Sài Gòn with over 7.5 million inhabitants, is hosting the third tournament in the 2016 cycle after victories of Dick Jaspers in Bursa and Eddy Merckx in Luxor.
The Nguyen Du Stadium opens its doors for a seven-day extravaganza of three cushion with many enthusiastic spectators in the stands. ,,I saw the best audience in the world in the World Cup last year'', says UMB President Farouk Barki. ,,The Vietnamese people are real billiard lovers, they are nice and warm and known for their great hospitality.''
The player who travels to Ho Chi Minh in a marvellous form next week is Frédéric Caudron, who won a Grand Prix in Belgium with a record average of 2.790. Caudron won his last thirty matches in official Belgian tournaments so far. He leads the Belgian ranking with 255 points followed by Roland Forthomme with 106 and Eddy Merckx with 105. In his last four tournaments (three Grand Prix tournaments and the Belgian championship), Caudron recorded 2.331 overall. Nick Polychronopoulos also showed his form last weekend when he won his third of three Grand Prix tournaments in Greece. Therefor he took his third Greek title in a row.
The best Vietnamese player, Quyet Chien Tran, was seeded automatically, as he belongs to of the world's top twelve. Two other home players, Duong Anh Vu and Ly The Vinh, were awarded a wild card for many years of performance in the World Cups.
The second city in Vietnam, with more than a thousand billiard clubs, will welcome the world players with open arms. Duong Anh Vu, six times champion in his country and twice Asian champion (2007 and 2008) owns two billiard clubs himself: the Anh Vū Clubs, one club with ten and one with twenty billiard tables. ,,We all look forward to the Ho Chi Minh World Cup, which was already a huge success last year'', assures Duong Anh, who was born and raised in this city. ,,The stands will be filled up to watch the world stars shining in this tournament.''
The most experienced and laurelled Vietnamese in the World Cup circuit has his own favorites: ,,I admire most of all Torbjörn Blomdahl and Dani Sánchez and from my country Quyet Chien Tran'', he says. Duong Anh's best results were two quarterfinals in a World Cup, both in Porto, 2009 and 2015.
The former Saigon was named after the North Vietnamese revolutionary Ho Chi Minh in 1976, when North and South Vietnam were reunited. The city is located 1750 kilometers south of the capital Hanoi. The traffic chaos in the city has to do with the 35 million scooters and motorcycles driving around.
Farouk Barki: ,,The country is a paradise for tourists, that is more or less the reason for a bigger interest of billiard players from many countries. They heard the stories and want to visit the country. We had to fill the program with many Vietnamese players last year. For the second World Cup, there was even a reserve list. The foreign players love to come to this tournament. The Greek top player Nick Polychronopoulos was late to sign up and was lucky that he can play.''
The Koreans are with 54 in the field of 149 players from 19 countries, the Vietnamese are among the boldest challengers with 34. There are thirteen Turks and ten Japanese on the list.
The third World Cup of the season will showcase all the best players from the circuit to make a bid for the podium places. Many of these players are young stars to cope with the level of competition to find the stepping stone on the road to bigger goals.
The top twelve is again led by Torbjörn Blomdahl, still with a comfortable lead in ranking points, followed by Dani Sánchez, Dick Jaspers, Frédéric Caudron, Eddy Merckx, Tayfun Tasdemir, Marco Zanetti, Roland Forthomme, Sameh Sidhom, Jae-Ho Cho, Dong -Koong Kang and Quyet Chien Tran. The wild card holders are Robinson Morales (Colombia), Christian Rudolph (Germany) and the Vietnamese Anh Vu Duong and Vinh Ly The.
The players for the last qualification day are:
Sung-Won Choi, Hyung Kon Kim, Quoc Nguyen Nguyen, Jérémy Bury, Semih Sayginer, Xuan Cuong Ma, Haeng Jik Kim, Jung Han Heo, Chi Yeon Cho, Jae Guen Kim, Lütfi Cenet, Pedro Piedrabuena, Riad Nady, Murat Naci Coklu, Hyung Bum Hwang, Eddy Leppens, Choong-Bok Lee, Adnan Yüksel, Nick Polychronopoulos en Regay Henry.
Tayfun Tasdemir was last year's winner in the final when he bested Torbjörn Blomdahl 40-34 in 17. The winner recorded 2.298 average, the Swede 2.108.
The start of this year's preliminaries is on Monday, May 16 at 11.00 am Vietnamese time, the semi-finals are on Sunday, May 22 at 12.00 and 14.00, the final 17.00.
The sports director of the UMB, Mr. Farouk Barki and the tournament director Mr. Nguyen Minh Hoang wish you a warm welcome and enjoy to watch the games.
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The metropole Ho Chi Minh hosts the third World Cup in 2016
The city hall of Ho Chi Minh by night
The full stands at the Ho Chi Minh World Cup cheering last year's winner Tayfun Tasdemir
UMB-president Farouk Barki: the Vietnamese people love billiards and are known for their great hospitallity