After the last billiards World Cup in 2024 taking place in Sharm el Sheikh – Egypt (from December 1 to 7), the UMB Events Ranking (only counting scores from World Cup and World Championship matches) has had many changes. dynamic. Notably, for the first time in the world top 14, there are 4 Vietnamese players participating, namely Tran Quyet Chien, Tran Thanh Luc, Bao Phuong Vinh and Chiem Hong Thai. The players in the top 14 will be given a special opportunity to appear in the final round (32 players) of the World Cup matches.
However, Tran Quyet Chien lost the number 2 position in the world, after a performance with poor form and stopped at round 16 of the Sharm el Sheikh 2024 World Cup. Quyet Chien fell to 4th place with 318 points, in turn ranked after Dick Jaspers (1st place, 480 points), Cho Myung-woo (2nd place, 340 points), Eddy Merckx (just reached the final and won runner-up position, rising to 3, 336 points).
Tran Quyet Chien (left) finished second in the race for the title of “best player of the year” 2024. Chiem Hong Thai won bronze medal at the Sharm el Sheikh World Cup
Even though Tran Quyet Chien was relegated, he still closed 2024 successfully with 2 World Cup championships. Quyet Chien finished in 2nd place in the “Best Player of 2024” race and received 15,000 euros (about 400 million VND) in prize money. Dick Jaspers won the title of “Best Player of 2024”, receiving 30,000 euros in prize money. This is the first year UMB applies scoring to summarize achievements across all World Cup stages and reward outstanding players.
After 7 World Cup stages in 2024, Tran Quyet Chien and Dick Jaspers are equal in achievement, both with 266 points. However, the title “Best Player of the 2024 season” belongs to Jaspers.
Player Tran Quyet Chien lost the title of 2024 champion for this unfortunate reason
According to the rules of the World Carom Billiards Federation (UMB), in case two players have the same score, the person with the better performance in the most recent World Cup will win the title of Best Player of the Year. The most recent World Cup took place in Seoul – South Korea last November, witnessing Dick Jaspers being crowned. Therefore, the Dutch player won the season championship title, even though he had the same achievement as Quyet Chien.
Tran Thanh Luc closes 2024 with 11th place on the world rankings. The most outstanding achievement of the 1990-born player is finishing second at the World Championship 2024, which took place in Binh Thuan last September. He also climbed to the top 10 in the world.
Although Bao Phuong Vinh could not go deep in recent World Cup stages, he still improved his position on the rankings. The player from Binh Duong ranked 13th. This is a position that helps Phuong Vinh not have to compete in the 4th qualifying round to get a ticket to the final round of a World Cup match.
The Vietnamese player who left the strongest impression at the Sharm el Sheikh 2024 World Cup is Chiem Hong Thai. The player born in 1999 overcame many formidable names such as Dick Jaspers (round of 16), Cho Myung-woo (quarterfinals) to reach the semi-finals (lost to Eddy Merckx). Hong Thai is currently ranked 14th in the world. With this position, the 25-year-old player will automatically appear at the final round of a World Cup in 2025.
Other prominent players of Vietnamese 3-cushion billiards include: Tran Duc Minh ranked 25th, Nguyen Tran Thanh Tu ranked 27th. Genius Frederic Caudron entered the top 20.
