Etisalat
WPA World 8-Ball Pool Championship 2010
Fujairah,
United Arab Emirates
04-10 April 2010
Championship Reports
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Day Four of the World 8-Ball Championships
Credit: Jerry Forsyth
The World 8-Ball
Championship in Fujairah, UAE, held the round of 32 first today. This is
single-elimination so that any loss means the end for the losing player.
It is a race to ten games with the winner breaking. Our first round
featured half of the remaining field and there are very few players left
who cannot be mentioned as possible candidates to take it all.
The
first player eliminated today was Scott Higgins. He ran into an
extremely sharp Ronnie Alcano and got buzz-sawed 10-3. Alcano simply
gave him no air. It seemed that every time Alcano had a shot he ran out
the table, including at least six break and run performances.
To prove the
toughness of the remaining field, Mika Immonen (Current US Open and
World Ten Ball Champion) was the second man eliminated today. He was
pitted against Russian superstar Ruslan Chinakhov and was out of the
match early as he found himself down 3-1. To his credit, he then fought
back to a tie at 3 games apiece but then Chinakhov buried him with runs
and Immonen rarely came to the table with a shot. It soon went to 9-4,
and then to 9-5. Immonen then scratched on the next break and Chinakhov
cleared the table to send the number one ranked player in the world to
the door.
Karl Boyes
certainly game with his game today. He steamrolled Masaki Tanaka
10-3
and played brilliant safeties when he needed in order to allow Tanaka no
quarter. Stephan Cohen, the current World 14.1 Champion, used his skills
to dismantle Pei Wei Chang 10-5 in a match where he was never under
threat. Cohen, despite his credentials, still somehow manages to fly
under the radar and players do not understand his power until it is too
late and their fates are already sealed. Cohen does nothing to change
this. He never brags about his wins, he just quietly hangs around and
awaits the next match with a slight grin on his face, a grin that allows
him to continue to appear non-threatening. In a pillow fight, his is the
pillow with the brick in it.
Vicencio Tanio is
another player who does not get the attention his game deserves. He
faced an extremely tough Jalal Alsarisi and just kept edging his lead
out there until he won the match 10-6. Dennis Orcullo and his countryman
Lee Van Corteza had a real nail-biter of a match. They stayed neck and
neck throughout with neither man ever enjoying more than a one game
lead. Finally it came down to a 9-9 game with Orcullo breaking. Orcullo
made thre balls and then played safe but Van Corteza escaped that and
cleared the table to claim the win 10-9. At about the same time Yukio
Akakariyama finished off Francis Crevier in a match that saw Crevier
suffer more than his share of bad luck. At one point Crevier executed a
lovely thin cut shot on the eight ball only to watch in agony as the cue
ball also found a pocket and cost him the point. The final match of the
first session stayed close but Jeff de Luna found strength when he
needed it and ran through the last rack to take the win at 10-8.
The second half of
the opening bracket found Ralf Souquet in top form. He ran seven racks
that this reporter witnessed and kept Huidji See firmly planted in his
chair for most of the afternoon. Souquet whitewashed the unfortunate See
10-0. Finishing quickly thereafter Ko Pin Yi finished his lessons on
Raymund Faraon 10-1 by running the last nine racks in a row and Joven
Alba easily handled Oliver Medininilla 10-3. Marcus Chamat, he of the
big heart, toasted American hero Shane Van Boening 10-1 to secure his
place in the sweet sixteen and Darren Appleton showed no mercy as
he
blasted past John Morra 10-4 to grab his chair there as well.
Antonio Gabica was
the next man to progress as he stormed past Marlon Manalo 10-6and Niels
Feijen did the same as he doubled the effort of Basher Hussein 10-5. Our
final man to move on was Andreas Roschkowsky who fought a close one with
Matues Sniegocki
to emerge victorious 10-7.
The sweet sixteen
round is always a round of great interest. All of the players have
proven themselves to be ‘on game’ and all are playing with the knowledge
that they have the power to be hoisting the trophy at week’s end. This
round is broken into two sessions of four games per session.
Two giants of the
game were the first to be eliminated. Ronnie Alcano lost 10-4 to Vicenio
Tanio and Lee Van Corteza got ousted 10-2 by Jeff de Luna. Ruslan
Chinakhov continued his fine work this week by downing Yukio Akakariyama
10-7 while Karl Boyes stayed alive with a 10-6 win over Stephan Cohen.
Joven Alba made one
of the greatest comebacks of the event when he was down 6-1 to Antonio
Gabica and rallied to win their match 10-7. Andreas Roschkowski began
his match with Marcus Chamat with both men close in the early stages.
But he pulled ahead and never surrendered the lead past the halfway
point to win 10-6. Darren Appleton and Pin Yi Ko had a very long match
lasting over 2¾ hours that saw Appleton winning 10-8 after Ko jumped the
cue ball off of the table on his break shot.
Our final result
came after a marathon match between Niels Feijen and Ralf Soquet that
lasted nearly 3½ hours. The break haunted both men and neither could
ever establish a comfortable lead. Most of the match was spent with only
a point or two difference between them though at one point Feijen did
lead 8-5 before Souquet began reeling him back in to lead 9-8. But
Souquet’s next break came dry and Feijen had an opportunity to take the
match to double-hill. He would not disappoint and when he cleared the
table both men stood only one rack away from the win. Feijen had the
break shot and when he made a ball on the break the handwriting was on
the wall. He cleared the table take the win and progress while our
defending champion was left to wonder what might have been.
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