Matchroom Sport Press Release:
Alex Pagulayan (Philippines 
) 8 - 7 Mark Gray (England 
)
2004 WORLD CHAMPION Alex Pagulayan scraped into the quarter-finals of the PartyPoker.net World Pool Masters as he edged past European No.1 Mark Gray 8-7 at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas. Gray, making his debut in the event, was left to rue a costly error in the final rack, as he failed to make contact with a rail, following a safety escape to give ball in hand to his opponent.
From there, the 29 year-old from Manila, cleared the table to secure a last eight match-up against Rodney Morris.
"I was nervous going into the match but I’m always like that in the early stages. As the game goes on it gets better for me," said Pagulayan. "Mark is a real shot maker but he is new to the game and didn’t break that well. Give him a couple of years though and he will be a much better player. "It was a good win for me though as I’ve lost in the first round of my last five tournaments" he added.
Pagulayan got off to a flier as he moved into an early 3-0 lead, confidently moving the cue ball around the table but Gray, making his Masters debut hit back taking the fourth rack. Superior shot making from Pagulayan set up the fifth rack but a weak positional shot left him short on the black 8 and he missed a tight cut.
Gray, though, wobbled it in the jaws and it stayed out. Pagulayan made a poor miss on the 9 ball and left it hanging and the European No.1 knocked it in to get back to 2-3. The Englishman came up dry on his next and Pagulayan fluked the 2 ball as he kicked on the 1. He made a disastrous miss, though, failing to make an elementary pot into the side pocket on the 1 ball.
Gray made no mistakes as he ran through the table to level it at 3 racks each. In an exciting encounter, the players traded racks to take the score to 6-6. The players exchanged safeties on the 1 ball in the 13th rack before Gray asked for an extension to the 35 second shot clock as he weighed up a 1/9 combination. Ignoring the additional time, he rushed the shot and saw it go awry.
The 1 ball fell nicely for Pagulayan and he coolly ran the table to reach the hill at 7-6. The Filipino missed a bank on the 1 ball and Gray swerved to pocket it. With a great chance of a 2/9 combo to level it, the Englishman missed, leaving the 2 ball on. Pagulayan though ran out of position and brushed the 7 ball going for the pink 4. With ball in hand, Gray cleared up to level the match up at 7-7.
With nerves playing a part, Gray missed a long pot on the 1 ball and narrowly missed fluking the black 8. Pagulayan made the 1 ball and then laid a tight snooker for Gray to extricate himself from. He escaped but failed to hit a rail after he kicked the 2 ball. With ball in hand, Pagulayan completed a tricky run to take the match 8-7 and secure a spot in the quarter-final where he will play Rodney Morris.
"Rodney has always been a good friend and we’re going to have some fun. We’ll kick it!" said Pagulayan.
Vist the official 2008 World Pool Masters website
