Vietnam’s Nguyen Quoc Nguyen finished third at the World Cup 3-Cushion Carom Billiards, which closed in HCM City on May 22.

Nguyen lost 30-40 to Jaspers Dick of the Netherlands in the semi-finals. The Vietnamese player was startled by a phone ring during the game that caused him to make an error when the score was 30-31 in favour of Dick.

World No. 6 Dick took full advantage of the rare opportunity and quickly grabbed nine points to win the match.

Nguyen is expected to jump up by seven places in the latest world rankings, which will be released later this week. It is the second time in his career that the No. 23 has booked his berth in the semis.

In the final match, Dick had no chance against No. 3 Frederic Caudron of Belgium.

Caudron displayed a better technique to win 40-20 and become the new champion of the tournament with a 3,000 Euros (US$3,400) bonus from the organisers.

VNS