Player Quoc Hoang won the third prize of Las Vegas Open
Zielinski had the right to break the ball in the first half, and took advantage of this to win 4-3. However, the number one player in Vietnam played in high form in the second half to win 4-1, forcing the match into the third half. In this round, the two players competed point by point, leading to a score of 3-3. At that time, the game must enter a shoot-out series, hitting one ball at a time in the original position to the corner hole.
In the first two rounds, Zielinski put the ball into the hole, and Quoc Hoang was unsuccessful in that one time the ball popped out. The Polish player had a chance to finish the match in the third round, and he put the target ball into the hole but died, helping Quoc Hoang to keep hope. In the last turn, the world number four player successfully made it to end the penalty shootout with a score of 3-1.
In terms of the number of games, Quoc Hoang is slightly better with the score 10-8. But the format of the tournament was calculated according to the score of each half and the penalty shootout, causing the number one player in Vietnam to stop. The 36-year-old player left with a bonus of 7,500 USD.
"The game was crazy because I felt like I hit really well," Zielinski said. "In the second half I didn't have many chances to hit, and I felt a bit unlucky. But in the end luck smiled on me."
Despite losing, Quoc Hoang experienced a successful first tournament, in which he defeated former world champions such as Ko Pin-Yi in the 1/8 round and Shane van Boening in the quarterfinals. Zielinski, who won the tournament in 2022, is ranked fourth in the world in pool content despite being only 22 years old.
After this tournament, Quoc Hoang and other Vietnamese players such as Dang Thanh Kien, Nguyen Anh Tuan and Luong Duc Thien will participate in the world 10-ball pool tournament also in Las Vegas, from February 28 to March 4. The defending champion is also a Polish player Wojciech Szewczyk.
The Las Vegas Open is an annual 10-ball pool tournament that takes place a few days before the World Championships. This year's Open has 192 players participating, taking place from February 22 to February 26. In the first stage, the players were double-eliminating, selecting 64 knockout players in the second stage. In each knockout match, the players play three rounds, each round in a best-of-7 format. Particularly in the third half, if the score is 3-3, the shoot-out players will win or lose.
Quoc Hoang was born in 1987, is the only player of Vietnam standing in the Top 100 in the world. He once made a splash when he crushed Jayson Shaw 9-0 at the 2018 Beijing Open, or entered the quarterfinals of the 9-ball world pool in early February 2023.
