Billiards player Bao Phuong Vinh - from zero to the top of the world after 13 months

New world billiard champion Bao Phuong Vinh only learned how to play properly for over a year before making a miracle for Vietnam at the world 3-cushion carom tournament.

At the beginning of 2022, Phuong Vinh was still not on the ranking list of about 3,000 players of the World Billiard Federation (UMB). After 20 months, he climbed into the Top 10 of UMB thanks to the 2023 world championship in Ankara, Turkey.

The 28-year-old's rise is rare even in the sports world, as he went from zero to the top of the world in less than two years.

Bao Phuong Vinh lifts the winning cup at the 3-cushion carom world championship in Ankara, Turkey on the evening of September 10, 2023. Photo: UMB

The World Championship in which Phuong Vinh was just crowned was rated the highest by UMB, with 120 points for the champion. Because winners of the World Cup or continental tournaments only receive 80 points. However, in his first time participating in the tournament, Phuong Vinh helped Vietnam win the championship for the first time. "The glory came to me really quickly," he told VnExpress after winning the championship on the evening of September 10.

Phuong Vinh was born in 1995 in Binh Duong. He loved playing billiards since he was a child but did not practice properly at that time. His and his family's priority at that time was still education. In high school, he studied at a private school in Ho Chi Minh City, then was admitted to Foreign Trade University, class 52, majoring in Foreign Economics. After receiving his bachelor's degree, Phuong Vinh continued to study abroad in Australia and earned a Master's degree in Business Administration and Economics.

Phuong Vinh said that he had nothing to worry about when it came to studying, because he had always been a good student . When he received his Master's degree, he was also ranked as good. However, the joy from those academic degrees could not compare to the joy when he became the world billiard champion. "There are many people who can get a Master's degree, but not everyone can become a world champion," he added.

That was also Phuong Vinh's goal after defending his thesis in Australia. Returning to Vietnam at the end of 2019, he strived to become a professional billiards player. His parents gave him three years to try his hand at billiards, to see if this direction would bring success. However, due to Covid-19, it was not until the end of 2021 that Phuong Vinh began to study systematically with teacher Nguyen Thanh Binh, and researched the 3C buttons scientifically.

In 3-cushion billiards, studying the number buttons has many similarities with mathematics, Phuong Vinh's strong subject. Each ball position can be in a certain number button set, and there will be a separate way to play for each set. The 28-year-old player's playing style is considered scientific and methodical. He himself said that studying for a master's degree helps his billiards ability, as this is a subject with many scientific elements.

Parents are the people who have had the biggest influence on Phuong Vinh's career . His family also invested in a standard table for him at home so that he can practice at any time. During the Covid-19 period, he was still able to practice and even played online with the world's number one female player Therese Klompenhouwer in June 2021.

2022 is a pivotal year for Phuong Vinh, as he first participated in an international tournament, the World Cup in Ho Chi Minh City, but stopped in the preliminary round. Last August, he first went abroad to compete in the World Cup in Seoul, South Korea, and made a splash by reaching the round of 16. At that time, he still did not think he could compete on equal terms with the world's top players.

Bao Phuong Vinh is the youngest 3-cushion carom world champion since Dani Sanchez at age 24 in 1998. Photo: UMB

"After beating world number one Dick Jaspers at the World Cup in Las Vegas, USA in March 2023, I was confident that I was capable of competing at the highest level," he said. "That was the first time Jaspers had stopped in the group stage of the World Cup."

Jaspers himself also rated Phuong Vinh the most among the group of rising 9x players in Vietnam , alongside Tran Thanh Luc and Chiem Hong Thai. "Phuong Vinh is young and has only competed internationally for a short time, but has shown his mettle and competitive spirit," the Dutch player said when he arrived in Ho Chi Minh City to attend the World Cup in May 2023.

For the first time participating in the Asian tournament, Phuong Vinh, Thanh Luc and Hong Thai reached the semi-finals in March 2023. However, the remaining player in the semi-finals, Cho Myung-woo, later won the championship, defeating Hong Thai and Thanh Luc respectively. In the semi-finals of the world championship on September 10, Phuong Vinh avenged his two teammates with a dramatic 50-48 victory over the "Korean prodigy". That match also marked a miracle for the team when for the first time Vietnam had a representative winning the world championship in a billiard category.

Before coming to Ankara, Turkey, Phuong Vinh only set a goal of going as far as possible. He did not expect to win the championship after defeating Tran Quyet Chien 50-34 in the all-Vietnam final. Regarding his next goal, Phuong Vinh said: "I want to conquer the World Cup."

As he is currently in the world's Top 10, Phuong Vinh will go straight into the group stage at the next World Cup in Veghel, Netherlands next month. A big rival of Phuong Vinh is Quyet Chien, the current World Cup champion in Porto, Portugal.

The current world champion and World Cup champion in 3-cushion billiards are both Vietnamese - a country with the largest number of amateur players in the world. Therefore, talents like Phuong Vinh may appear in the future.

Vnexpress.net