WC2002 Day 3 Round-up

At the end of day 3, the Bristol qualifier from the Philippines, Ramil Gallego is still on paper the best performer, having lost only 8 frames in 5 matches! Only the Iceman Mika Immonen has got the better of Gallego so far, but it is Gallego who tops group 1 with the world champion second. Big American names Johnny Archer and the betting favourite Cory 'The Prince of Pool' Deuel both won both their games today and are looking good for the last 64. Among the other American heavyweights, Strickland is four points clear at the top of his group, Charlie 'the Korean Dragon' Williams is still holding his own in third place in group 13, and after a disappointing couple of days Jeremy Jones has given himself a real chance of reaching the last 64 by winning both games and finishing second in group 10.

Efren Reyes lost a game for the first time today - he went down 5-2 to the relatively unknown Filipino Siaw Wieto, not that that is going to affect his chances as he currently sits 4 points clear at the top of group 5 after beating Scotsman Pat Holtz 5-1. Francisco Bustamante is still top of his group after beating Holland's Nick Van Den Berg on the TV table, as is Warren Kiamco who whitewashed last year's runner-up, Ralf Souquet of Germany today.

Europeans currently topping their groups include Hungarian Sandor Tot, Czech newcomer Roman Hybler, Neils Feijen of Holland, Ortmann and Reimering of Germany and Swede Marcus Chamat. 'Fabulous' Fabio Petroni is having a good tournament so far, sitting in close second in group 3 behind Reimering. The unknown Irishman who had a dream start on day 1 seems to have run out of steam a little - he was beaten 5-2 by Tony Drago and 5-3 by 1998 Cardiff champion Kunihiko Takahashi - and finished the day 6th in group 9. One place above him is the UK's no. 1 Daryl Peach who won one and lost one today.

Welsh snooker pro Mark Williams, who looked promising on day 1 and 2, got beaten 5-3 by Filipino Leonardo Andam and quality Dane Peter Nielsen. Kevin Smith of England won one and lost one today, but doesn't look likely to progress as he finished the day 7th in his group. Englishman Imran Majid had a terrible day, being whitewashed by group leaders Earl 'The Pearl' Strickland and Japanese Shintaro Sugaya, although still finished the day in the top half of his group table. Not so the english hopefuls in group 13 - 8 ball player Darren Appleton and snooker pro Paul Hunter - neither of them setting the 9 ball world alight so far, lying as they do in the bottom half of their group table. It was another good day for Steve Davis, as he won his only game of the day and is now almost certain to appear in the knockout phase.

You can see all the match results here and the group tables are here