76th World Championship 3-Cushion – Binh Thuan (VT)

Binh Thuan, September 29th, 2024.

He’s still young, but he carried expectations on his back for the last ten years. Everybody called him “a future world champion”. That’s nice and well-intended, but praise doesn’t make points. Practice does. 

In a one-sided final, Myung Woo Cho dominated the surprise from Vietnam, Thanh Luc Tran. The 35-year-old local had eliminated Legazpi, Zanetti, Bury and Jaspers, and a proud man he must be. But in the final, the balls didn’t obey as well as they did against Jaspers. Tran struggled; Cho played billiards. As the gap in points grew, so did Cho’s confidence. He ended the final with a fluke, but the smile on both players’ faces said they didn’t mind. The final score was a reflection of the match: 50-23 in 20/19.

In both semifinals, the European favourite lost. Merckx had played a superlative tournament and outscored everybody. But against Cho, he could not get a meaningful run going until it was almost too late, Cho scored and never seemed to miss anything makeable. He had a 38-15 lead when Merckx ran a textbook 10, but the Korean never lost focus and finished the job at 50-35 in 24/23. 

Jaspers was dreaming of a sixth-world title, but he admitted to not finding peak form. Tran played as if he walked on water: 43 points in the last 11 innings. It led to 50-32 in 16, surely the highlight in Tran’s career. A very enthusiastic Vietnamese crowd agreed.   

It was nice to see that same enthusiasm during the final. You can always count on Myung Woo Cho to produce a few crowd-pleasing shots. How many titles are in his future?  

There was an all-Vietnamese final last year (Q.C. Tran – P.V. Bao) and an all-Asian final this year. Europe has not yet been knocked out, but it is on the ropes and the knees are shaking.

The best match in Binh Tuanh was played by Eddy Merckx: 5.000 (40 in 8).

The best general average was also played by Merckx: 2.453. 

The high run was made by Mikael Devogelaere: 18. 

The tournament average was 1.616 (last 32). 

UMB.