It’s Day 5 of the World Cup of Pool and there are only 8 teams left in the tournament. Here are the quarterfinal pairings of the 2011 World Cup of Pool:
The unheralded pair of Lee Gun Jae & Hwang Yong beat World 9-ball Champion Yukio Akagariyama and partner Lo Li-wen, 8-6 to set up a quarterfinal date with Sweden. The match was even at 3-3 before the Korean pair won 3 straight racks and then matched Japan rack for rack to win the Round of 16 match.
(4) Germany 8 vs. 3 Malaysia
Ralf Souquet continued his hot streak in Philippine soil as he paired up with Thorsten Hohmann to beat the Amir-Ooi tandem of Malaysia, 8-3 in the second round of the 2011 World Cup of Pool. Their victory earned them the right to face Efren Reyes and Django Bustamante in what could be an explosive quarterfinal encounter. The lower ranked Malaysians were able to match the Germans early in the game to draw level at 3-3 before Soquet and Hohmann regained their first round form and win 5 straight to end the Malaysian hope in this year’s World Cup. Souquet thinks the pressure will be greater for the Philippine Team B as he said “Playing two legends in front of their home crowd maybe makes it tougher but tougher for them. They have more to lose than we do and I’m really looking forward to it and have a good feeling about it.”
Thailand 8 vs. 4 Estonia
The match between 2 giant killers ended in Thailand’s favor as they edged Estonia 8-4. Thailand beat Holland in round 1 while Estonia stunned England. Dennis Grabe & Erki Erm of Estonia we just down by one rack after the 9th game, 4-5 before Nitiwat Kanjanasri & Kobkit Palajin finished them off by winning 3 straight racks.
(11) Poland 8 vs. 3 Singapore
Poland’s Karol Skowerski & Radoslaw Babica continued their impressive form to beat another Southeast Asian pair after routing Vietnam in the 1st Round. This time they eliminated the Singapore team of Bernard Tey & Chan Keng Kwang that upset the USA in a hill-hill encounter a few days ago. The game was tied at 2-2 before Poland limited Singapore to one rack en route to an 8-3 victory. Next up for the Polish is another Southeast Asian entry in Thailand for a spot in the Final 4.
(7) Taiwan 8 vs. 7 (10) Italy
The Ko Brothers of Chinese-Taipei survived a hill-hill encounter against a tough Italian pair of Fabio Petroni & Bruno Muratore. Ko Pin-yi & Ko Ping-chun were on the hill after the 11th rack with a 7-4 which vanished after a furious rally by the Italians to tie the 2nd round match at 7-7. A dry break from Muratore handed the ball to the Taiwanese who run out the rack for the win and a place in the quarterfinals.
(2) Philippines 8 vs. (15) 6 Canada
Dennis Orcollo & Ronnie Alcano of the Philippines face Jason Klatt & John Morra of Canada for the right to face the 7th seeded Taiwan in the Quarterfinals. The game was very close early on as the 15th seeded Canadian pair took the initiative and took a 6-4 lead. The Philippines used to combination shots to level the score 6-6 before taking the lead for the first time at 7-6 on a good break by Alcano. The Philippines finished off a very good Canadian tandem in the next rack. The match gave the Filipino fans some nervous moments but eventually Orcollo and Alcano delivered a fine show.
Day 4 Recap: Save for Japan, the seeds held serve this round as teams like Germany, Taiwan, Philippines, and Poland entered the Last 8. The pairings in the quarters are Sweden-Korea, Philippines B-Germany, Thailand- Poland, and Taiwan-Philippines A.
Ralf Soquet continue his hot streak in the Philippines as he paired up with Thorsten Hohmann to rout the Australian pairing of Greg Jenkins & David Rothall. The 4th seeded German pair blanked Australia 8-0.
(13) France 6 vs. 8 MALAYSIA
Malaysia’s Ibrahim Amir & Patrick Ooi shocked the 6th-ranked French pair of Stephan Cohen & Vincent Facquet, 8-6. The game was close and it was even tied 5-5 after the 10th rack. Malaysia won two consecutive games to take the lead for good. Amir-Ooi pairing will next face Germany’s Soquet and Hohmann.
(3) England 6 vs. 8 ESTONIA
Estonia made its presence felt in their World Cup debut as they overcame the 3rd-seed Brtish pairing of Darren Appleton & Chris Melling. Dennis Grabe & Erki Erm won 2 straight games from 6-all tie to book a place in the Round of 16. Erki Erm believed that every time has chance in this tournament just like what Switzerland did to the defending champs China yesterday.
(14) Holland 4 vs. 8 THAILAND
Holland’s Huidji See & Marco Teutscher were upset by Thailand’s Nitiwat Kanjanasri & Kobkit Palajin, 4-8. Another seeded team fell as Team Thailand raced to a formidable 6-1 lead to frustrate the Dutch pair. The Thais will face the Estonians in the next round for a place in the quarterfinals.
(6) USA 7 vs. 8 SINGAPORE
USA’s Corey Deuel and Mike Dechaine showed up with a stars and stripes theme costume in their match against lowly Singapore composed of Bernard Tey & Chan Keng Kwang. The game though was not a costume party as Singapore blitzed to a 5-1 lead. The Americans suddenly got serious to tie the match at 5-5 and even reached the hill ahead of the Singaporeans 7-6. Dechane missed the 4-ball in the 14th rack to hand over the break to Singapore in the hill-hill encounter. Singapore won the final match and send another higher seed out of the competition.
(2) PHILIPPINES A 8 vs. 2 Austria
The Filipino fans were hoping that Dennis Orcollo & Ronnie Alcano will duplicate the perfromance of the Reyes-Bustamante tandem last night. The fans who flocked to The Block in SM City North EDSA were not disappointed as No.2 seed Philippines Team A never gave the Austrian pairing Jasmin Ouschan & Mario He. Incidentally, Austria is represented by one female cue artist. The Orcollo-Alcano pairing run off with 8 straight racks after trailing 0-2 early in the match. The Philippine Team A will await the winner between Malta and Canada tomorrow.
Day 2 Recap: Just like yesterday, seeded teams are losing to lesser rank teams. Heavyweights Germany and Philippines were able to buckle the trend but England, Holland, USA were not as lucky. There will be more surprises in this year’s edition of the World Cup of Pool for sure.
After a successful staging of the 2011 World Pool Masters. PartyPoker.net is once again the title sponsor of the 2011 World Cup of Pool which will be held at the Block Atrium, SM City North EDSA Mall, Quezon, City. It is the 3rd time that the Philippines has hosted the tournament where 32 of the best billiards pairings represent their country in a win or go home tournament. Here are the participating teams in this year’s event:
Europe (15)
Austria – Jasmin Ouschan & Mario He
Croatia – Carlo Dalmatin & Ivica Putnik or Philipp Stojanovic
England – Darren Appleton & Chris Melling
Estonia – Dennis Grabe & Erki Erm
Finland – Mika Immonen & Petri Makkonen
France – Stephan Cohen & Vincent Facquet
Germany – Ralf Souquet & Thorsten Hohmann
Holland – Huidji See & Marco Teutscher
Italy – Fabio Petroni & Bruno Muratore
Malta – Tony Drago & Alex Borg
Poland – Karol Skowerski & Radoslaw Babica
Russia – Konstantin Stepanov & Ruslan Chinakhov
Spain – David Alcaide & Francisco Diaz-Pizarro
Sweden – Marcus Chamat & Thomas Mehtala
Switzerland – Dimitri Jungo & Ronni Regli Read the rest of this entry »
German Ralf Souquet captured 2011 World Pool Masters title Monday night after beating defending champion Dennis Orcollo. Souquet won $20,000 for the victory while Orcollo settled for $10,000. Sixteen of the world’s best pool players where invited to compete in this tournament sponsored by PartyPkoer.net.
The successful and well-attended tournament was held at at The Block at SM North EDSA in Quezon City. It was the 19th running of the World Pool Masters tournament and it was held for the first in the Philippines.
World No.1 Orcollo will be waiting for the winner of the other semifinal matchup between Darren Appleton of England and Ralf Souquet of Germany. The victory over Fu was in a way a sweet revenge for Orcollo who was beaten by Chinese billiards player in the China Open and Challenge of Champion.
The winner of tomorrow’s final match will win $20,000.
Django Bustamante bowed to Canadian Jason Klatt , 8-3 yesterday. Bata Reyes was defeated by England’s Darren Appleton, 5-8. The hopes of the Filipino billiard fans now fall on Orcollo and Corteza.
Lee Van Corteza squeaked past reigning World Ten Ball champion Huidji See of the Netherland, 8-7 in his Round of 16 match. World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) World No.1 Dennis Orcollo meanwhile, barged into the Final 4 after beating Chinese Chang Jung-lin, 8-1. It is a great follow-up of his 8-2 rout of Tony Drago yesterday.
It will be exciting to see if a Filipino will be able to defend its home turf in this tournament that will give the winner $20,000.
World No. 1 Dennis Orcullo leads the early winners of PartyPoker.Net World Pool Masters held at The Block of SM North, Quezon City. He beat Malta’s Tony Drago. Fellow Filipino Django Bustamante and World 9-ball champ Yukio Akagariyama were not as fortunate. The top 8 will be completed by tomorrow and the winner of this prestigious tournament will be known by Monday.
SM City North EDSA Mall in Quezon City will host the 2011 PartyPoker.net World Pool Masters. The prestigious pool tournament will be on Sept. 3-5, 2011. This invitational event will feature 16 of the best billiards players in the world.
The Matchroom Sport has released the draw and initial schedule of matches.
Dennis Orcullo (Phi) v Tony Drago (Mlt) 12.00 noon Saturday 3rd
Darren Appleton (Eng) v Efren Reyes (Phi) 13.00 Sunday 4th
Yukio Akagariyama (Jpn) v Raj Hundal (Ind) 18.00 Saturday 3rd
There are 4 Filipinos entered in the event where the winner will get $20,000. The defending champion is none other than Dennis Orcullo.
The winners of the round of 16 matches will play again on Sunday afternoon and evening. The semi-finals and finals will be held on the next day. The matches will be Race to 8, winner breaks.
The 2011 World Pool Masters is sponsored by PartyPoker.net, the world’s leading online poker school. Cloth is supplied by Iwan Simonis, Super Aramith balls by Saluc, tables by Star Xing Pai and the Official Cue is Predator.
Shane Van Boening is currently battling Taipei‘s Ko Pin-Yi for the championships of the 2011 Guinness World Series of Pool 10 Ball Challenge. Ko beat World No.1 Dennis Orcollo of the Philippines in the semi-finals while Van Boening eliminated local hero Irsal Nasution 8-3.
UPDATE: Ko-Pinyi grabbed the 2011 Guiness World Series Crown by beating Shane Van Boening 10-4. Ko was a former winner of the Philippine Open and he won $41,000 for winning the championship of Guinness Ten Ball Challenge. Ko grabbed the early lead before Van Boening recovered to level the match at 4-4. But after the 8th rack, Ko swept all the games with the help Van Boening’s dry breaks. The blog congratulates all the participants of the event and wishes the champion more success in the future.
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