WCOP 2009 - Day 3 Update

Matchroom Sport Press Release:

Super Poland Paste The Belgians

POLAND put in one of the best performances so far at the PartyCasino.net World Cup of Pool as they restricted the Belgian pair of Serge Das and Pascal Budo to the role of spectators, running out 8-0 winners at the SM Mall North Annex in Manila.

The pairing of Radoslaw Babica and Mateusz Sniegocki, currently ranked 19th and 15th in Europe respectively, looked in tip top shape as they kept the Belgians in their chairs, allowing them up for occasional visits to escape from safeties.

Belgium got to the table in the third but Budo, making his World Cup of Pool debut, scratched to give ball in hand to the Poles. It was the story of the match for the Belgians.

The ever-youthful looking Babica, once known as the Choirboy, but now a seasoned pro, and his team mate Sniegocki looked in fine fettle as they ran out the third to leave Belgium in trouble.

There was no respite as the Poles ran through the racks and with a white-wash on the cards, they kept their foot firmly on the pedal to run out clear winners. They now meet Chinese Taipei in the second round.

“I know Chinese Taipei will be favourites in our second round match but we watched them earlier and they made a few mistakes. So, if we can play like this we have a real chance,” said Babica.

“For us, this will be a good chance to show our countrymen that we can win something and we will be doing our best.”

Lacklustre Chinese Taipei Take Win

EARLIER CHINESE Taipei won a hard fought match 8-6 against Singapore to advance to the next round but it wasn’t pretty as both teams struggled to get anything going.

The team consisted of Yang Ching-shun, a consistent performer at the highest level over the years, and Lai Chia-hsiung, who last played in a Matchroom Sport pool event back in 2001 when he appeared in the World Pool Masters (coincidentally also in shopping mall).

That followed a great run at the WPC the previous July where he went all the way to the semis only to be beaten by Ralf Souquet. Since then he has more or less disappeared off the international scene until this week.

The pair didn’t seem to gel but had enough to get past the dogged Singaporean pair of Toh Lian Han and Chan Keng Kwang.

In fact, Singapore looked in the driving seat as they broke at 6-6 in what was effectively a race to two. There was a dry break though and that seemed to sum up Singapore’s day.

Holland And Russia Take Last Two Spots

RUSSIA, with a combined age of 42 making them the youngest team in the tournament, looked older than their years as they put in an excellent performance to oust Denmark from the 2009 PartyCasino.net World Cup of Pool at the SM Mall North Annex in Manila.

Konstantin Stepanov is 25 and Ruslan Chinakhov is 17 but they controlled the match from start to finish as they restricted Denmark to few chances and converted their own.

Denmark struggled throughout and failed to take their chances as Russia moved quickly into a 5-1 lead. There was no real way back from that for the Danish pair of Kasper Kristoffersen & Bahram Lotfy.

They managed another couple of racks but it was all Russia as they went forward to round two.

“We practice together and we’re friends off the table as well and I think that helps in this type of format,” said Stepanov after the match.

In the final round one match, Team Holland, wearing very stylish national team shirts, made it 14 out of 16 of the seeded teams into the second round at the expense of former World Cup semi-finalists Vietnam.

Niels Feijen and Nick van den Berg have always been among the favourites in the four years of this competition and they looked very methodical as they kept well ahead of the opposition.

Similar to the earlier game, the classy Dutch moved into a 5-0 lead and in the brutal race-to-eight winner breaks format. A missed 9 ball from Van den Berg let the Viet team of Luong Chi Dung and Nguyen Thanh Nam but there was to be no comeback as the Dutch took the next for 6-1.

Vietnam managed a couple more but it would be Team Holland who would take the second round spot where they would face Japan.

“We started off great, made a couple of errors and had to regain our composure and finish the job which we did,” said Feijen.

Complete First Round Results

Holland 8 – 3 Vietnam
Russia 8 – 3 Denmark
Poland 8 – 0 Belgium
Chinese Taipei 8 – 6 Singapore
Philippines A 8 – 5 Thailand
England 8 – 4 Malaysia
Germany 8 – 0 Hong Kong
Japan 8 – 6 Croatia
Italy 8 – 5 Austria
Finland 8 – 3 Sweden
Philippines B 8 – 3 Qatar
USA 8 – 7 Malta
Indonesia 8 – 3 India
Spain 8 – 3 Australia
China 8 – 5 Korea
France 8 – 1 Canada

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