WC2002 Day 1 Round-Up

The first day of the 2002 World Pool Championship has finished, and there weren't many surprises at the end of the day, with previous champions Efren 'The Magician' Reyes and Fong-pang Chao topping their respective groups and most big names doing well in their matches. Biggest surprise however is that Irishman John Wims, unknown before winning the one-rack shoot-out in Bristol, is topping his group after beating Shannon 'The Cannon' Daulton, the very capable and well-respected American, and the Panamanian Javier Palacios.

The UK players on the whole have got off to a good start as well - Steve Davis won both his games by a single frame to top Group 16, defeating Australia's Shawn Putnam and veteran Canadian Gerry 'The Ghost' Watson. Welshman Mark Williams, who didn't really do so well in the tournament last year, got off to a flying start by beating American Troy Frank on the TV table as well as whitewashing Canadian Mario Morra.

Blackpool's Daryl 'Razzle Dazzle' Peach, currently number 4 on the UK Pro Tour (he finished the year 2001 as the UK's number 1) and one of the UK's best hopes of winning this tournament, beat 1998's World Pool Champion Kunihiko Takahashi. Englishmen Steve Knight and Phil Harrison both won one and last one to finsh third in their respective groups at the end of the day. Anthony Ginn of England, who finished top of his group last year and went on to the to the last 16 where he fell to the eventual winner Mika Immonen, hasn't got off to such a promising start today after beating beaten 5-1 by both David 'The Matador' Alcaide of Spain and Thomas 'The Smiler' Engert of Germany.

Play resumes at 11am tomorrow - we don't know about you, but 9ballpool.co.uk is definitely rooting for the giant-killing unknown from Ireland, John Wims.