WC2002 Last 64 End of Day Update

The balls have stopped rolling in the last 64 phase, and it turned out to be a disastrous day for the English. UK no.1 Daryl Peach met the Canadian Alex Pagulayan on the TV table tonight - the diminutive Canadian took the first 3 frames, which included two break-dishes, but broke down in frame 3 with a bad miss on the six. Peach took the chance and cleared, then took the next frame and in the sixth potted the 9 in the same shot as the 3 to take the game level at 3-3. The scoring pattern repeated itself with Pagulayan taking the next 3 frames and Peach the 3 after that, despite being a little unlucky with his breaks and having a tendency to over-run his shots slightly. The next frame saw Peach gift Pagulayan the 2 ball - Pagulayan didn't look back and took the next 3 frames to win the match 9-6.

Last year's runner-up Ralf Souquet made an earlier than expected departure thanks to Cardiff newcomer Dennis Orcullo of the Phillipines who finished top of group 10, although whether he topped his group by skill alone is in question after he was seen getting up and talking often during the game with Souquet and not showing the game or his opponent the respect they deserved. Souquet's concentration appeared to be broken when he missed an easy straight 6 in the final frame and Orcullo scraped through 9-8. Ramil Gallego, the Filipino who qualified in Bristol and caused chaos among the big names in group 1, eventually finishing second behind the Iceman, goes through after beating American legend Jim Rempe 9-3.

Another Filipino, Rudolfo Luat, won't be going through after a dramatic match that went all the way against Steve Davis. Davis went 7-3 down but clawed his way back - at one point Davis laid an excellen trademark safety, but Luat made the pot with a trademark Filipino bank shot. At 8-7 down, Davis played Davis himself banked his way out of a snooker on the 8, and the white cannoned off the 8 to sink the 9. It looked like it could have been a fluke, but the power Davis put into the shot meant there wasn't any other shot he could have been playing for - he meant it all the way as a shot to nothing. Davis is now the only English hope left in the tournament, after Steve Knight got a pool lesson from German Oliver Ortmann to go out 9-2 and Phil Harrison, the 8 ball player from Cambridgeshire who took Korean Sin-young Park to 8 frames all in the last game of the day but was beaten in the 17th frame after a nervy safety battle.

Other players through to the final 32 are Italian 'Fabulous' Fabio Petroni who beat Neils Fiejen of Holland 9-1, Thomas Engert of Germany, Japanese newcomer Takenaka, 1998 world champion Kunihiko Takahashi, Swede Marcus Chamat, Mexican Ernesto Dominguez and American legend Nick Varner.