GERMANY WINS WORLD CUP OF POOL

GERMANY, represented by Ralf Souquet and Thorsten Hohmann, won their first PartyPoker.net World Cup of Pool crown as they dismantled Kobkit Palajin and Nitiwat Kanjanasri of Thailand by a score of 10-4. The tournament was held at the The Block Atrium of SM North EDSA in Quezon City on Sunday. "It’s still hard to believe and it hasn’t sunk in yet. We really worked hard for the title and held ourselves together,” said a jubilant Souquet, who als won the World Pool Masters crown. “We had a really hard semi-final that could’ve gone wrong and I played awful against Korea but Thorsten carried me to the final. “I always said you can only lose as a team and we certainly won as a team. Playing here in Manila in the Philippines is the best thing that has happened to pool.” For the Thai side of Palajin and Kanjanasri , it was an anticlimax after their heroic 9-3 defeat of Taiwan spearheaded by Ko Pin-yi and Ko Phung-chung, 9-3, in the semis and maybe they were mentally drained by their efforts. The German duo, meantime ousted the Koreans pair of Hwang Jong and Lee Gun Jae, 9-7, to arranged a titular showdown with the unseeded Thai duo. Efren "Bata" Reyes and Francisco "Django" Bustamante of PHL-B and the pair of Dennis "Robocop" Orcollo and Ronato "Volcano" Alcano for PHL-A lost their quarter-final round matches last Saturday. The German duo of Souquet and Hohmann defeated the tandem of Reyes and Bustamante, 9-1, while the Ko Pin-yi and Ko Pung-cheng of Chinese-Taipei edged the pair of Orcollo and Alcano, 9-8. It was a sweet revenge for the German cue masters who lost to the Filipino dynamic duo of Reyes and Bustamante in the finals two years ago. In fact the German duo raced a 9-7 commanding lead in the race-to-11 affair before the host nation bounced back winning four consecutive racks for an 11-9 victory. With 32 teams representing 31 countries – home nation Philippines has two teams in the competition – the World Cup of Pool sees the gathering of some of the most decorated stars of pool. With a total purse of $250,000, the winning pair split $60,000 between them while first round losers are guaranteed $1,500 each. All the action will be carried live on Solar Sports in The Philippines and other broadcasters across the region.MARLON BERNARDINO