19-26 February 2011
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Day one of the World 8 Ball Championship
Credit: Jerry Forsyth
The first day of
the group stages has now completed and about two-thirds of the field has
played their first match. Some of the highlights:
Earl Strickland of the USA, who with Vincent Facquet of France put on an
excellent trick shot show for the opening ceremony, led Sumit Talwar 6-1 and
was in command to easily take the 7-game match when Talwar began a comeback
and brought the score back to 6-5 before he missed a shot that would have
gotten them to hill-hill. With that miss as strength Strickland finished out
the set for a narrow 7-5 victory. Shane Van Boening had taken a nap in the
afternoon and was sleeping soundly only a few minutes before his match when
his roommate happened to return to the room and awaken him. Still in a cloud
of slumber, Shane trailed Basem Mohammed Aboud 3-2 before his senses kicked in
and he rallied to take the match 7-3.
Raymond Faron was up 6-2 in his match when he missed a fairly elementary 8
ball to take the win and Hani Al Howry came back to a 6-5 score line before Al
Howry suffered a dry break that allowed Faron to run the table and take the
match. Defending Champion Karl Boyes had an easy time with Fahad Khalaf
Aljassas. Boyes completely controlled the table throughout and won 7-0 to
progress to the second round on the winners side. Boyes commented "I am here
to win the tournament, not just to qualify for the finals.".
In
the final round Vilmos Foldes was comfortably ahead of Takhti Zarekani 4-0
when Zarekani caught a higher gear and began commanding the table. From then
on Foldes could not find an opportunity and Zarekani won the match 7-5. Jeff
De Luna, one of the most feared players in the tournament was leading his
match against Khaled Al Mutari 5-0 when Mutari rallied strongly and, coupled
with some uncharacteristic errors from De Luna, dominated the rest of the
match to upset the Filipino 7-5. One key error from De Luna was a miscue that
found his cuetip scooping underneath the cue ball. The tip hit the ball, then
the ferrule struck it as it traveled under the ball and a double-hit foul was
called that brought Mutari to the table for the final clean-up.
The
rest of the opening round will take place on Monday and then the one-loss side
will be contested to see which players are the first to take to the exits. The
WPA would like to extend their thanks and appreciation to Ahmed Abloshi and
his entire tournament staff, especially to head referee Mr. Arafat, for their
diligence and all of the work they have undertaken to make this tournament a
success. None of this could happen without the sponsors who care to put up the
funds required and we also wish to extend our gratitude to them. They include
the title sponsor, Etisalat Telecommunications, Fujairah International
Airport, Arjaan by Rotana, Le Meridien Beach Resort, Knight Shot Billiards,
Dubai Sport, Al Diar Siji Hotel, Pepsi-Cola, and the Emirate of Fujairah.