Round 32 and round 16 of the 2024 Molinari 3-cushion carom billiards tournament take place on December 16, in Ho Chi Minh City. In round 32, the players compete in a two-loss format, to choose 16 players to continue. This round has the participation of all the prominent faces of the Vietnamese 3-cushion carom billiards village such as Tran Quyet Chien, Tran Thanh Luc, Bao Phuong Vinh, Nguyen Tran Thanh Tu, Tran Duc Minh… and especially is “legendary” Torbjorn Blomdahl.
Tran Quyet Chien has a great series
Among them, Tran Quyet Chien continues to show stable performance and has a winning record. The number 1 player in Vietnam defeated Truong Be Nam (with a score of 40-38) and Vuong Minh Thien (with a score of 40-21). Notably, in the match against Minh Thien, Tran Quyet Chien impressed by scoring 40 points in just 12 shots, achieving high efficiency with 3,333 points/match.
Tran Quyet Chien had a spectacular sprint with a series of 13 points to create a major turning point in the match, thereby winning the final to enter the quarterfinals.
With a record of winning both matches, Tran Quyet Chien soon won a ticket to participate in the round of 16, meeting Tran Quoc Vinh. The player born in 1984 won with a score of 40-17, after 19 rounds. Notably in this match, while leading 25-17, Quyet Chien launched a spectacular sprint with a series of 13 points in the 18th round, increasing the gap to 38-17.
Tran Quyet Chien convincingly won a ticket to the quarterfinals of the 2024 Molinari 3-cushion carom billiards tournament. In the match for tickets to the semi-finals, Tran Quyet Chien will face Dao Van Ly. The quarterfinal matches will take place on December 17.
Blomdahl “failed” before the Vietnamese players
Torbjorn Blomdahl received 2 losses against Vietnamese players so he could not enter the round of 16, including 1 defeat against Bao Phuong Vinh.
A surprise happened in round 32, when veteran player Torbjorn Blomdahl had to stop. In the opening match of round 32, the Swedish “legend” won 40-30 against Ngo Van Duc. But in the decisive match for a ticket to the round of 16, the player born in 1962 received a 35-40 defeat against Bao Phuong Binh. The loss to Phuong Vinh forced Blomdahl to play a play-off match to have a chance to reach the round of 16. But in the play-off match, the 46-time World Cup champion continued to lose with a score of 37-40 to Vy Ngoc Chau.
In addition to the competition between Tran Quyet Chien and Dao Van Ly, the remaining pairs in the quarterfinals of the 2024 Molinari 3-band carom billiards tournament include: Ly The Vinh vs. Nguyen Duc Anh Chien, Bao Phuong Vinh vs. Tran Thanh Luc, Nguyen Van Phuoc Hieu met Pham Quoc Thich. The players who win in the quarterfinals will continue to compete in the semi-finals and finals on December 17.
Bao Phuong Vinh will have a fiery confrontation with Tran Thanh Luc in the quarterfinals
The 2024 Molinari 3-cushion carom billiards tournament has big prize money. Accordingly, the player who wins the championship will receive 146 million VND in cash. The person who finishes as runner-up receives 51 million VND. The two players tied for 3rd place received 16.5 million VND/person.
Besides players such as world number 1 Dick Jaspers (Netherlands), Frederic Caudron (Belgium), Eddy Merckx (Belgium), Marco Zanetti (Italy), Torbjorn Blomdahl is considered a veteran of world 3-cushion carom billiards. The Swedish player has won the World Championship 7 times. In addition, he also holds the record for winning the most World Cups, having won 46 times.
