Universal Open Ho Chi Minh Preview: No. 1 Duel, Mosconi Stakes and a Homecoming
The World Nineball Tour's first ranking event in Ho Chi Minh City puts a $63,000 Silver prize, the world No. 1 race and Europe's last Mosconi Cup auditions on the same table.
The World Nineball Tour returns to Vietnam this week — and for the first time, it heads south. The Universal Open Ho Chi Minh, a 128-player Silver ranking event carrying a $63,000 prize fund, runs November 11-15 at Sniper Billiards Club, according to the WNT event page and the tournament's official site. It is the tour's fourth trip to Vietnam after three editions of the Hanoi Open from 2023 to 2025, but the first held away from the capital.
The No. 1 duel
The featured list mirrors the top of the rankings. World No. 1 Aloysius Yapp ($327,180) and No. 2 Carlo Biado ($309,100) are both in, per the WNT rankings updated after the Philippines Open. With $15,000 to the champion — the figure published on the official tournament site — a deep run here could put real pressure on a No. 1 race currently separated by roughly $18,000.
Johann Chua arrives as the form man. The world No. 7 won the inaugural Roobet Philippines Open two weeks ago, holding off Anton Raga 11-9 in an all-Filipino final at Gateway Mall, as ABS-CBN and Spin.ph reported — and Chua already owns a trophy on Vietnamese soil, the 2024 Hanoi Open. Raga, ranked No. 55, is himself among the 11 featured names the WNT lists for the week.
A Mosconi Cup audition
For Oliver Szolnoki, the Asian swing is a deadline. The Hungarian sits fourth in the WNT's one-year Mosconi Cup qualification race — one place outside the automatic spots, behind Francisco Sanchez Ruiz (already qualified), Joshua Filler and Aleksa Pecelj. Ho Chi Minh and the following week's Universal Bangkok Open (November 17-21, $69,400, per the WNT schedule) are the last two ranking stops before the Mosconi Cup begins November 27 in Orlando. Robbie Capito, the world No. 11, has a season target of his own: he stands third in the World Pool Masters qualification race.
A home date for Vietnamese pool
Ho Chi Minh City is Duong Quoc Hoang's town — the WNT lists his hometown as exactly that. 'The Martian,' world No. 21 and Vietnam's highest-ranked player, won Premier League Pool earlier this year to become the country's first Matchroom invitational champion, adding to his 2024 Scottish Open ranking title and back-to-back Reyes Cups with Team Asia, per his WNT profile. Three more Vietnamese cueists sit inside the top 90: Luong Duc Thien (No. 76), Nguyen Anh Tuan (No. 81) and Pham Phuong Nam (No. 88).
None of the home contingent appears among the featured 11, and the full 128-man entry list remains unpublished, as Ncue Media's event hub notes. Vietnam fielded 68 players at the 2025 Hanoi Open, Tuoi Tre News reported — expect a deep local cast when the bracket lands.
How the week runs
Per the official tournament site, double elimination cuts 128 down to 64 — races to 9 on the winners' side, 8 on the losers' side, 9 in the deciders — before the draw goes straight knockout: races to 10 through the last 16, 11 in the quarter- and semi-finals, and a race to 13 for the title. The champion collects $15,000 of a $63,000 fund that includes $37,400 in added money. Play streams on WNT.TV, and Ncue Media is tracking the event on its Universal Open Ho Chi Minh hub.
Cover photo: Saigon skyline at night by Gurval Le Bouter, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.