3-Cushion
The Vietnamese supremacy in a group with Semih Sayginer and Dani Sánchez was striking and Dinh Nai Ngo's finish was the highlight on the first day in the OneCarom Challenge. The final run 16 equalized the best run in the entire cycle of all Challenge events played since the summer. Dinh Nai Ngo won his group ahead of Nguyen Quoc Nguyen: 38 against 33 points. Torbjörn Blomdahl, in the other group, scored 38 in the first session of the day. The starting day was not really good, especially Sayginer, Sánchez and Jérémy Bury couldn't live up to the expectations.
The Vietnamese duo, of which Nguyen Quoc Nguyen is the number 21 and Dinh Nai Ngo the number 25 on the world rankings, were superior in the camp with Sánchez and Sayginer. Nguyen already led over his opponents after 5 innings (20-12-12-11) thanks to runs of 7 and 6. Nguyen also set the tone in the second part of five innings, Sánchez and Sayginer continued to miss noticeably. Ngo's final shot, with a fantastic run of 16, was decisive for the final win.
''I was lucky,'' commented the victorious Vietnamese modestly. Dani Sánchez, who really felt desperate in the last part, scored a 7-run in his first innings, but only could make a 4 to the end. He had no excuse: ''I couldn't find my feelings, but I have no excuse. I just played badly.'' Sayginer, who started with a 6, could only say that he failed to make high scores in the other part of the match: 1-2-1-2-2-2-1 in seven innings The finish with two 4 couldn't erase the damage anymore.
Torbjörn Blomdahl started in his group with 7, 4 and 4 and scored 21 points in 5 innings. Sung-Won Choi was the closest with 15, ahead of Therese Klompenhouwer with 14 and Jérémy Bury with 9. The second part, with a run of 7, kept Blomdahl comfortably in the lead of his group. Choi finished in second place, Therese Klompenhouwer finished poorly and Jérémy Bury, who played on a brand new cloth, had a total off-day.
The day ranking in Group A:
1 Torbjörn Blomdahl 38
2 Sung-Won Choi 24
3 Therese Klompenhouwer 21
4 Jérémy Bury 21
The day ranking in Group B:
1 Dinh Nai Ngo 38 points
2 Nguyen Quoc Nguyen 33
3 Semih Sayginer 25
4 Dani Sánchez 24.
Torbjörn Blomdahl turned 58 today, French billiard lover Huguette Heitz sent him this creation
Vietnamese duo Dinh Nai Ngo and Nguyen Quoc Nguyen