Pinoys Orcollo and Corteza dismiss Croatia in World Cup of Pool
Not even a shorter race was enough to threaten the Philippine team.
Dennis Orcollo and Lee Vann Corteza advanced to the second round of the 888.com World Cup of Pool 2013 with a workmanlike victory over Croatia's Ivica Putnik and Karlo Dalmatin by a 7-4 scoreline.
In previous years the World Cup of Pool used race-to-eights in the first round, but this year Matchroom Pool, the tournament promoters, shaved off a rack. It didn't matter, as the favored Filipinos romped to victory anyway in front of a supportive crowd of Filipinos in York Hall, in Bethnal Green in London.
It was reported that the Philippine Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Enrique Manalo, was in attendance.
The Philippines now meets either Poland or Singapore. Poland, last year's surprise finalists when they were represented by Karol Skowerski and Woijciech Szewcyk, clash with Aloysius Yapp and Chang Keng Kwang on Wednesday. Poland this time has trotted out Tomas Kaplan and Radoslaw Babica.
The Balkans took the first rack before the Pinoys won the next two on the trot. The Philippines then took a commanding 5-2 advantage on the back of some errors from their foes. Putnik and Dalmatin pulled one back to make it 5-3 before the Philippines ran out to reach the hill, 6-3. Croatia pegged another rack back before the Philippines stylishly ran out rack eleven for the 7-4 final score.
Corteza and Orcollo erase memories of last year's World Cup when the duo, playing for the first time at this event, were upset by Switzerland's Dimitri Jungo and Fil-Swiss Ronnie Regli in the first round when the event was held in Robinson's Place Manila.
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The Philippine team is trying to duplicate the achievements of Efren Reyes and Francisco Bustamante, the only Filipino team to lift the World Cup trophy. The legends won the inaugural WCOP in 2006 then defeated Germany's Ralf Souquet and Thorsten Hohmann in the final to win in SM North EDSA in 2009. Only China's Li He Wen and Fu Jian Bo have won the title twice.
Last year's champs, Mika Immonen and Petri Makkonen of Finland, also busted into the round-of-16 via a 7-2 rout of Austria, who are represented by Jasmin Ouschan and her brother Albin. They are the first team of siblings in the competition since Ko Pin Yi and Ko Ping Chung of Chinese Taipei reached the semifinals two years ago.
In other results, Korea Republic defeated Estonia's Erki Erm and Dennis Grabe, while one of the pre-tournament favorites, Germany, advanced with a 7-4 win over Malta's Tony Drago and Alex Borg.
Surprisingly, Dominic Jentsch, and not Hohmann, is Ralf Souquet's partner this year, despite the fact that the Souquet-Hohmann pairing won this event in 2011. Hohmann won last week's World 9 Ball Championship in dominating fashion, defeating Antonio Gabica in the final. Just the other day the champ returned to the United States and beat Johnny Archer in the final of a Straight Pool event.
The Netherlands team of Nick Van Den Berg and Niels Feijen also secured passage into the second round by beating Scotland's Jayson Shaw and Jonni Fulcher. Fulcher, apart from being a world-class Pool player, is also a research physicist working in the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland.
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England B, composed of 2007 world 9 Ball champ Daryl Peach and Chris Melling, delighted the home crowd with an expected 7-4 win over Portugal's Manuel Gama and Guilherme Sousa. The home team in the World Cup is given two slots, and the other English team, England A, which features Darren Appleton and Karl Boyes, is scheduled to meet Indonesia's Muhammad Zulfikri and Neza Nasution.
The Philippines are in a relatively easy part of the bracket. Should they win their next round they face either China, Hong Kong, Russia or Hungary. It is believed that only China is a true title threat from that bunch. Li He Wen, who has won this event twice, has Liu Haitao as his wing man instead of Fu Jian Bo.
The winning team banks US$60,000 out of a purse of US$250,000. Info for the event is available on http://www.matchroompool.com/world-cup-pool. Live streaming of the matches can be found in http://www.pool.livesport.tv/home.
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