HA NOI – Top Vietnamese player Ma Xuan Cuong has been invited to take part in the 2013 AGIPI Billiards Masters preliminary round on November 23-25 in Strasbourg, France.

Cuong will join group two with Belgium's Eddy Leppens, Greece's Nikos Polychronopoulos, France's Jerome Barbeillon and Portugal's Joao Ferreira.

Group one comprises of Spain's Javier Palazon, Germany's Raimond Burgman, Belgium's Roland Forthomme, Denmark's Dion Nelin and France's Jean-Christoph Roux.

Cuong, along with Ferreira and Burgman, are debutantes in the tournament.

These ten players will vie for four spots at the next qualifying round in January and February 2013.

The AGIPI Billiards Masters, organised by billiards lover Claude Fath, attracts the world's top 3-cushion players. In November 2010, another top Vietnamese player – Duong Anh Vu – took part in the AGIPI Billiards Masters preliminary round but failed to progress.

Cuong will participate in a national tournament for the best billiards and snooker players from November 10-17 in Nha Trang City, Khanh Hoa Province. He will leave for France on November 18 to spend two days practising at a club in Paris, before heading to Strasbourg to prepare for the preliminary round. – VNS