ANDAM, MANALO, DE LUNA WINS 1ST MATCH
LEONARDO ANDAM waited a year to avenge his loss in the last year's edition of the Philippine World Pool Championships. The veteran cue artist remembered too well the loss he suffered to German Ralf Souquet in the preliminary of last year's World Pool Championship in a 4-8 rack score.
"Isang taon ang hinintay ko para makabawi ako ngayon," said Andam, fondly called "The Rattle Snake" or "Dodong Dadiangas" in the pool world in the biggest stage of pool televised worldwide over ESPN.
It was worth the wait.
Andam, showing the form that won him four gold medals in the 1991 Southeast Asian Games, jumped the gun on the unsuspecting Souquet and held on to a 9-5 victory.
"Bihira na akong lumaro sa malalaking kumpetisyon ngayon kaya natatandaan ko talaga kung sino ang mga nakakalaban ko," said Andam, one of two Filipinos to come out of the qualifying round.
He could clinch a spot in the next round with a victory over Raj Hundal of England. Hundal downed Bernard Tey Choon Kiat of Singapore, 9-4.
Marlon Manalo also inched closer to the next round with a come-from-behind 9-7 win over Serbian D Dabovic.
Dabovic got off to a quick start and had Manalo on the ropes in the early goings. He raced to a 3-0 lead and maintained it until Manalo clustered four racks to reach the hill with 8-6 advantage.
The chubby former snooker player from Mandaluyong City had a chance to close the match on the 15th frame, but the pink four refused to sink after hitting the cue ball too hard.
Manalo finally clinched it after a scratch on the break by Dabovic. His victory set up a duel with China's Li He-wen, a 9-4 winner over Iran's Farhad Shaverdi.
Jeffrey de Luna, fresh from winning the 1st Manny Pacquiao International 9-Ball Open trounced Sandot Tot of Serbia and Montenegro, 9-5, to arrange a second match encounter against Fu Che-wei of Taiwan, winner over Vittorio de Falco of Italy, 9-8.
Thorsten Hohmann, the 2003 champion, bowed to teen-ager Ko Pin-yi of Taiwan, 3-9. Ko's sensational victory set him up for a duel with Serge Das of Belgium, who pulled off a similar 9-3 win over Edwin Montal, a Filipino representing Canada.
Royalty also fell as Thomas Engert of Germany trounced Prince M. Billah of Brunei, 9-2. Engert will next face Roman Hybler of the Czech Republic, 9-7 winner over Lee Chenman of Hong Kong.
Temperemantal but cool last nigh Earl "The Pearl" Strickland, five-time world champion suffered an upset loss to unheralded Alan Tan of Malaysia.
Meanwhile, Dennis Orcollo, Roberto Gomez and Rodolfo Luat will open their campaign today. Eight Filipinos already advance in the last 64 after day 2 that includes defending champion Ronnie Alcano, Efren "Bata" Reyes, Francisco "Django" Bustamante, Alex Pagulayan, Ramil Gallego, Joven Bustamante, Lee Vann Corteza, and Antonio Gabica.
Antonio "Nickoy" Lining is the earlier casualty of the 15 Pinoy gladiators.
Other player also advance in the next phase were Asian 9-ball tour over-all champion Chang Jun-lin, Lu Hui-chan, 2005 World 9-ball champion Wu Chia-ching and two-time Asian Games 9-ball gold medalist Yang Ching-shun of Chinese-Taipei,, ex-World 9-ball champion Oliver Ortmann and Harald Stolka of Germany, Alex Lely and Nick van den Berg of Holland, Luong Chi Dung and Pham Tuan Ngoc of Vietnam, Corey Deuel and Charlie Williams of the USA, Alain Martel of Canada, Philipp Stojanovic of Croatia,,Karl Boyes of England, ex-world 9-ball kingpin Mika Immonen of Finland, Vilmos Foldes of Hungrary, Muhammad Zulfikri of Indonesia,Kenichi Uchigaki of Japan, Tony Drago of Malta,Radoslaw Babica of Poland,Goran Mladenovic of Serbia and Montenegro,Chan Keng Kwang of Singapore and David Alcaide of Spain.
(Report from MARLON BERNARDINO).
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