Vietnam's "crazy king" scores shocking points at World Cup
Almost certain to lose, the Vietnamese player still calmly made an unbelievable series of points to reach the finish line, making his opponent bow his head in admiration.
| Video "Crazy" 15 shocking points of Dinh Nai (source kozoom) |
Late on October 25, the La Baule World Cup 3-cushion carom billiards tournament (France) entered the final qualifying round to find the 15 best players to participate in the 1/32 knockout round along with the 17 top seeds in the world.
Tickets to the final qualifying round are only for the top 12 players in each group (group of 3) and the 3 best runners-up.
After two Vietnamese players, Do Nguyen Trung Hau and Nguyen Duc Anh Chien, were eliminated the day before, the hope of Vietnamese billiards was placed on Ngo Dinh Nai, who entered the game the earliest on this day of competition.
In Group B with Dion Nelin (Denmark, ranked 91st in the world) and Hideaki Kobayashi (Japan, ranked 63rd in the world), Dinh Nai is highly rated for his ability to advance.
In the first match, the world's 18th ranked player easily defeated Hideaki Kobayashi with a score of 40-21 after 21 rounds to enter the decisive match for the top spot with Dion Nelin. The Danish player also has 2 points because he also beat Kobayashi earlier.
At the beginning of the match, taking advantage of the white ball hitting first, Nelin hit a series of 11 points to take the lead 13-3. The Vietnamese player responded with a series of 8 and a series of 3 points to narrow the gap to 14-18.
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| "Crazy King" Ngo Dinh Nai had an excellent match. |
However, in the following minutes, the Danish player showed his excellent form at the tournament with consecutive series of points and quickly reached the finish line with a score of 40-25 after only 17 turns.
If this result stops, Ngo Dinh Nai will definitely be eliminated. The Vietnamese player must make a series of big points in the last round to have a good bonus coefficient to compete for 1 of the 3 best second-place spots to continue.
Under great pressure, the unthinkable happened when Dinh Nai calmly performed a series of 15 points to "rob" the opponent of victory amid enthusiastic applause from the audience.
Meanwhile, despite the unbelievable draw, Nelin still bowed his head to show admiration for the Vietnamese player.
Ngo Dinh Nai's 15-point series is also the highest score in a single round at this World Cup. There are currently 4 players with the same series, including 1 Vietnamese player.
Although unable to win first place in Group B, with 3 points after two matches and an extremely high extra coefficient of over 2.0, Dinh Nai won the best second place ticket in the final qualifying round to participate in the 1/16 knockout round.
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| The Vietnamese player will compete with Choi Sung-Won (world No. 7) in the round of 16 (photo kozoom) |
Nai's opponent will be the world's 7th ranked player Choi Sung-Won (Korea) - who won the World Cup in 2012 and the prestigious World Championship in 2014. This match will take place at 5:00 p.m. on October 26.
The La Baule World Cup is one of eight Grand Prix World Cups in the UMB scoring system. The tournament takes place from October 22-28 with 149 players competing, including all the world's top players.
