Billiards: Tran Quyet Chien lost to his fateful opponent again, genius Caudron struggled

The main round (32 players) of the Porto Billiards World Cup 2025 will take place from this afternoon, July 3, in Portugal. In this round, Tran Quyet Chien and top Vietnamese players such as Tran Thanh Luc, Bao Phuong Vinh and Chiem Hong Thai will compete. In addition, Thon Viet Hoang Minh and Dao Van Ly will also compete after passing the fourth qualifying round.

Tran Quyet Chien received his third consecutive defeat.

Fate once again brought Tran Quyet Chien and Bao Phuong Vinh into the same group D, facing each other in the opening match of the 2025 Porto Billiards World Cup taking place on the afternoon of July 3.

Not much different from the Ankara Billiards World Cup 2025 in mid-June, Tran Quyet Chien also did not have the best playing feeling in the first match of the Porto Billiards World Cup 2025. After the first 7 rounds, Vietnam's number 1 player only scored 7 points.

PHOTO: TB

On the other side, Bao Phuong Vinh won the right to start, holding the white ball and entered the game very quickly with a series of 8 points. In the 8th turn, the player from Binh Duong brought the match into the break, leading his senior with a score of 21-7.

In the second half, Bao Phuong Vinh's scoring speed slowed down significantly. However, Tran Quyet Chien still could not take advantage to break away. At one point, Quyet Chien narrowed the gap to only 3 points, trailing 19-22. That was all Vietnam's number 1 player could do, before finally accepting defeat with a score of 40-29, after 25 turns.

This is the third consecutive time in over a month that Tran Quyet Chien has lost to Bao Phuong Vinh. In turn, Quyet Chien lost in the final of the SCTV Cup 2025 international billiards tournament at the end of May (HCMC), then in the round of 32 of the Ankara 2025 World Cup billiards (in Türkiye) in mid-June.

PHOTO: TB

In the matches at the same time, Chiem Hong Thai lost 28-40 to Soares (Portugal). Dao Van Ly defeated Thon Viet Hoang Minh 40-34, after 27 innings. Despite losing the first match, Tran Quyet Chien, Chiem Hong Thai and Dao Van Ly still have 2 more matches ahead to make amends.

Another player who received attention was Frederic Caudron, who also played at the same time as the Vietnamese players. The Belgian genius defeated Jihad Kolfad (Lebanon) 40-18, after 37 turns. This was a rather difficult victory for Caudron, as the player born in 1968 only achieved a rather low average scoring efficiency of 1.081 (points/turn).