Colombia World Cup of 2025 -Thanh Luc Tran

Bogotá, Mars 2nd 2025.

Following in the footsteps of Quyet Chien Tran (4X) and Duc Minh Tran, 35-year-old Thanh Luc Tran becomes the third Vietnamese winner of a World Cup. In an exciting and close final, he beat Tayfun Tasdemir from Turkiye 50-47 in 36/35. Tran had the lead all along, but after he missed a bank shot match point at 49-40, Tasdemir gave it his all with a run of seven. The Vietnamese player, acting in his first World Cup final, grabbed his second chance.

Thanh Luc Tran has been regarded as one of the best players in his country for half a dozen years now. He is tremendously talented, with two faces. On the one hand, he’s proved himself to be one of the toughest defenders on the circuit, at one point driving even the great Jaspers to despair. On the other hand, he can sometimes throw all caution to the wind and attempt an outrageous shot. And he often makes it. 

 In the first semifinal, Jaspers had a slow start and so did Tran. The Vietnamese broke away with a little 4-5-3-2, four useful innings. The world number one was in shackles, Tran’s defense was solid concrete. After the predictable Jaspers fightback, Tran ran an eight to finish, from 42-37 (27). A fluke helped, but it was compensated by a few glorious points.