Duong Quoc Hoang has been crowned the Scottish Open champion following a comeback victory over Oscar Dominguez at McGoldrick’s Sports Bar in Glasgow, sealing his maiden World Nineball Tour ranking title in a monumental occasion for Vietnamese pool.
More than 100,000 viewers watched live from Vietnam in the early hours as their number one battled back from 8-4 behind against Dominguez, securing the £10,000 top prize in ideal preparation for the forthcoming UK Open Pool Championship.
In a final between two players ranked 43rd and 47th in the world nineball rankings, Duong pulled off a composed shot on the nine ball to claim the opening rack. He was seemingly cruising towards a break and run in the second, only to somehow miss a routine eight ball and allow Dominguez to get on the board.
The American claimed back-to-back racks before a scratch from the break allowed Duong to clear the table and halve the deficit. That was short-lived nonetheless, as Dominguez potted an incredible seven that was welded to the nine on his way to moving 4-2 ahead.
Duong was subsequently rather fortunate not to scratch, ultimately knuckling his opponent and receiving ball in hand, but a missed jump shot in the following rack sparked a winning streak for Dominguez as he claimed five of the next six racks to establish an 8-4 lead.
A two-nine combination using the jump stick was a turning point in the final, with Duong executing a sensational shot, before tying up Dominguez in a safety battle and soon compiling his first break and run to chase the coattails of the American at 8-7.
Miscueing on a routine two ball in the subsequent rack, the balls rolled in Duong’s favour, with Dominguez spurning a tricky combination. He cleaned up from there, prior to putting together his second break and run in a timely fashion to move onto the hill at 9-8.
Dominguez received opportunities in what proved to be the concluding rack, missing a three-nine combination as well as a three with uneasy cueing over the nine, although the Scottish Open ultimately belonged to Vietnam’s first ever WNT champion.
Duong had endured defeat in his opening match of the tournament on Wednesday evening against Ko Ping-Han, the younger brother of Ko Pin-Yi and Ko Ping-Chung, but the world number 47 brushed that off and won six straight matches the one-loss side to qualify for the last 16.
Elliott Sanderson and Mustafa Alnar were amongst those to fall by the wayside, before Ho Chi Minh City’s Duong achieved a statement victory over Carlo Biado in a hill-hill affair prior to claiming a significant scalp in world number one Francisco Sanchez Ruiz.
Duong then battled back from 6-1 behind against Tyler Styer and defeated Eklent Kaci in resounding style to reach the semi-finals, where he needed to come through a deciding rack epic against Ko Pin-Yi. In a lengthy last rack, balls became locked to rails, with Duong executing three sensational shots to emerge victorious.
Mexico Open runner-up Dominguez, meanwhile, reached his second successive ranking final with four break and runs in dethroning defending champion Jayson Shaw in the semi-finals, having also compiled four break and runs in his 10-7 quarter-final win over Thorsten Hohmann.
Beforehand, Mosconi Cup hopeful Dominguez had held his nerve to complete a 10-9 victory over Joshua Filler in perhaps the shock of the tournament. He had also beat Japan’s Naoyuki Oi and Scotland’s own Dawud Qadir, who had beaten Niels Feijen earlier in the tournament.
Elsewhere, Eklent Kaci, who will be defending his UK Open in Telford from Tuesday, exacted revenge on Shane van Boening in the last 16, having been defeated in winners qualification, while newly-crowned World Pool Masters champion Fedor Gorst was ousted in the same round.
Former US Open runner-up Karl Boyes departed in losers qualification, despite attracting attention with wins over Jonas Souto Comino and Albin Ouschan, with his campaign coming to close following heavy defeats at the hands of Aloysius Yapp and Jayson Shaw.
