Quyet Chien Tran Wins His 2nd World Cup

More and more Vietnamese players are knocking on the door, but Quyet Chien Tran is still his country’s best. He proved it in a one-sided final in Porto, where he dominated Sameh Sidhom: 50-30 in 27. The Vietnamese position-play specialist won his first World Cup in Ho Chi Minh in 2018. 

In the first of two semifinals, Jeremy Bury was hit hard by a run of 19, made by Sidhom in the second inning of the match. The Frenchman never recovered from that blow: 50-20 in 31/30. In the other semi, Tran was not in real danger against his young countryman Hong Chiem Thai: 50-26 in 20/19. 

The final started well for Sameh Sidhom, who won the lag and ran a good 6. But Tran quickly countered and outscored the fluent Egyptian all match long. The Vietnamese player looked relaxed; his opponent was on the back foot. Tran thoroughly deserved his win. 

The best match was played by Dick Jaspers: 40 in 12 (3.333). 

Jaspers also had the highest general average: exactly 2.000. 

The Dutchman held on to the number one spot on the world ranking, but only just. He leads Marco Zanetti by 8 points. Tran is now in 10^th place. Newcomer Thai is 21^st. 

The 2023 season will have three more World Cups: Veghel, Seoul and Sharm El Sheik. 

UMB.