12-17 February 2012
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And Down They Go!
Poland's Karol
Skowerski upsets defending champ Dennis Orcullo as a slew of big names fall at
the 2012 World 8Ball Championship
Credit: Ted Lerner
The
World 8-ball Championship turned into a wide open race on Wednesday in
Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, as some of the games biggest names,
including defending champion Dennis Orcullo, last year’s runner up Niels
Feijen, and semi-finalist Darren Appleton all were sent packing barely
after the knockout stages had gotten going.
Other big names, like former champions Ralf Souquet and Karl Boyes were
also handed their walking papers. In all it amounted to a proverbial one
day bloodletting in one of the sport’s biggest championships.
The
biggest upset of the day was easily Orcullo, who went down hard to
upstart Karol Skowerski of Poland. Both Orcullo and Skowerski had won
their round of 64 matches earlier in the day, and came up against each
other in the first of the round of 32 matches later in the evening. When
the defending champion sent the cue off the table on the opening break
it must have been a terrible omen for the Filipino, who was certainly
expecting to go far in the event he won last year.
Indeed things continued downhill even faster for Orcullo as he fell
behind 5-0 in the race to 9, alternate break contest. The 28 year old
Skowerski, who's ranked number 4 in Poland, took advantage of several
errors from the defending champion, and played surprisingly confident
pool throughout. The Kielce native showed superb potting skills and was
never intimidated even when Orcullo began a fight back. In fact it was
the Filipino who seemed to fold as Skowerski won the match going away,
9-3 for the biggest win of his career.
"I
played well and I really concentrated well the whole match,"
an obviously delighted Skowerski said after the match as he was
congratulated by teammates Radislaw Babica and Tomasz Kaplan, both of
whom were eliminated earlier in the day. "I
wasn’t scared and I wasn’t nervous."
At
about the same time, Feijen, who’s been runner up here two years
running, found himself in a difficult match against the very talented Ko
Pin Yi of Taiwan in a round of 32 contest. Everyone expected this one to
go the distance but it wasn’t even close. Ko, who over the last year has
been making it clear he intends to be one of the world’s best players,
blew Feijen out of the building, taking the match 9-2.
One
of the more interesting matchups of the early sessions in the round of
64 was perennial favorite Souquet taking on the USA's Max Eberle.
Eberle is the last American standing in this year’s championship, and
over the last 24 hours he’s been openly relishing carrying the mantle
for the USA, the ancestral home 8-ball.
Indeed "Mad Max" started his match like a man possessed as he jumped out
to a 4-0 lead. As expected the Kaiser methodically crawled his way back
into the match and looked to be squeezing the air out of the American. Eberle,
though, stood his ground and wouldn’t let the German great catch him as
he held on for a gritty 9-7 win.
"I
came out strong and I think that set him back a bit,"
Eberle said afterward.
"Ralf was tight
today. He usually plays cleaner but he kept giving me opportunities."
Darren
Appleton came into this year's championship supremely confident of his
chances to take the title, even admitting early in the week that for him
to lose, an opposing player would have to shoot lights out pool.
"You really have to
beat me,"
the powerhouse Brit said. Those words came back to haunt Appleton
tonight as China’s talented Li He Wen beat him senseless in the round of
64. The 31 year old Li, who hails from Shenyang in northeastern China
and is China’s number one ranked player, steamrolled Appleton 9-3 to
move into the round of 32 on Thursday.
"I played very good
today,"
Li said afterward through an interpreter.
"He didn’t break
good and he gave me too many chances."
Several times today in Fujairah it was proved that players from the
Middle East have made great strides in recent years and are no longer
just filler for tournament fields. 23 year old Salah Al-Rimawi of the
UAE brought some noise to the Fujairah Tennis Club as he upended fancied
Brit Daryl Peach, 9-5. Al-Rimawi, who is the UAE's number one player and
made it all the way to the final 16 last year here, played solid pool
throughout and jumped out to a 7-1 lead over the former World 9-ball
champion, who had seemed out of sorts the entire tournament. Peach
fought back but Al-Rimawi showed true grit by bearing down and crossing
the finish line in style.
Earlier, 20 year old Ahmad Jallad, who showed fine form last June in
Qatar for the World 9-ball championship, showed he can play serious
8-ball as he put in a gutsy performance against favored Filipino Joven
Alba. Alba, who coaches the national team of the UAE, went up 6-2 only
to commit some glaring errors that allowed the youngster to gain some
momentum. Jallad clawed his way back to go up 7-6, then held off the
Filipino for a narrow win, 9-8.
It
was not the best of days for the Philippine contingent as six Pinoys
went down to defeat. Still three big names are still in the
championship; Lee Van Corteza, Roberto Gomez, and Carlo Biado.
Thursday is sure to provide plenty of drama and tension as the field
will be reduced to four players by the end of the day. Thursday play
begins at 2pm in Fujairah (GMT +4).
The
2012 World 8-ball Championship concludes on Friday with the semis and
finals. The winner will receive $20,000 while the runner up will get
$15,000. The tournament has a $156,000 prize fund.