Who is the World Cup carom champion Tran Duc Minh?

The champion of the Ho Chi Minh City leg of the 2024 Carom 3-Cushion World Cup is Tran Duc Minh. This player is not mentioned as much as his colleagues with resounding international achievements in recent years such as Tran Quyet Chien, Bao Phuong Vinh... However, Tran Duc Minh is also a star in the Vietnamese billiards village, having won the national championship.

Who is Tran Duc Minh?

Tran Duc Minh was born in 1984. On the World Billiards Federation (UMB) rankings, Tran Duc Minh is ranked 37th. He is the 4th Vietnamese player on this list, behind Tran Quyet Chien (world No. 2), Bao Phuong Vinh (9), Chiem Hong Thai (23) and Tran Thanh Luc (27).

Tran Duc Minh's total accumulated points in 2024 are 85 points. Of these, 80 points were just added last night (May 26) after he won the World Cup. Before that, Tran Duc Minh was only ranked 415th in the world.

There is not much information about Tran Duc Minh on social networks or in world billiards databases.

However, at the national level, the 40-year-old player is a "ranked" figure. His achievements include the gold medal in the 3-cushion carom national championship in 2016, 2018 and 2020, the silver medal in 2019 and the bronze medal in 2017.

Tran Duc Minh won the World Cup

Athlete Tran Duc Minh entered the Ho Chi Minh City leg of the 2024 Carom 3-Cushion World Cup season ranked only 415th in the world. Due to his low ranking, he had to compete from the second qualifying round (pre-pre-qualify), which means he had 6 more matches than the other seeds. However, the 40-year-old player showed great form from these rounds and eliminated each opponent he faced.

The victories of Tran Duc Minh - a player with little reputation in the international arena - caused a big surprise. In the round of 16, this player won 50-33 against world champion Tran Quyet Chien. It was the defeat against Tran Duc Minh that caused the number 1 Vietnamese player to miss the opportunity to rise to the number 1 position in the world rankings.

After that, Tran Duc Minh successively defeated two Turkish opponents, Karakurt Berkay (ranked 25th in the world) in the quarter-finals and Kiraz Tolgahan (ranked 17th) in the semi-finals.

In the final, Tran Duc Minh's opponent was Kim Jun-tae. The Korean player had just accumulated enough points to become world number 1. However, Kim Jun-tae marked this milestone by losing to Tran Duc Minh.

The home team led the Korean player 21-4 at one point. Kim Tun-jae's class helped him score 12 points in a row to shorten the score. The match was a tight affair and the Korean player had a chance to end the match when he led Tran Duc Minh by only 1 point (46-45).

However, Kim Tun-jae's mistake at the decisive moment cost him his victory. Tran Duc Minh scored 2 consecutive points to take the lead 47-46 before scoring 3 more points in the next turn, thereby winning the final match 50-46.

The thrilling victory in the final helped player Tran Duc Minh win the World Cup for the first time in his career. After the tournament, athlete Tran Duc Minh has the opportunity to climb into the top 40 best athletes in the 3-cushion carom event, on the rankings of the World Billiards Federation (UMB).

Tran Duc Minh's World Cup stage 1 championship helped Vietnamese billiards affirm its leading position in the world in the 3-cushion carom event. Previously, Bao Phuong Vinh won the 2023 world championship. He and Tran Quyet Chien also won the world championship in the team event.