2007 Philippines World Pool Championship Field Down to 64

Shane Van Boening

The most dominant representation comes from the Philippines with 13 players in the last 64 shake up, closely followed by Chinese Taipei with 10. Disappointingly, the USA with an original entry of 11 now only has four survivors in round two.

There are now five days to go in the $400,000 event which is televised live throughout Asia on the ESPN Star network as well as Sky Sports in the UK.

There was plenty of top quality action on day four as players fought for their chance to progress. Big name victims included former two-time champion Johnny Archer who lost to 18 year-old Taiwanese Wu Yu-lun and then went down to another two-time champion Chao Fong-pang 9-3 to exit the tournament.

Rodolfo Luat, a quarter finalist here last year, went two and out at the hands of Toh Lian Han (Singapore) and England’s Daryl Peach.

Rodney Morris, highly fancied in some quarters, looked good winning his opener 9-0 against Dave Reljic of Australia, but then lost successive matches to improving Swiss player Marco Tshudi and then unheralded Dane Bahram Lotfy to book an early flight home.

Playing in his first World Pool Championship, Shane Van Boening, the current US Open Champion eased his way into round two with a hill-hill win over Chang Yau-mau, and then beat Scotland’s Pat Holtz 9-4 to set up a last 64 clash with Antonio Gabica.

Other eagerly anticipated round two games include Jeff De Luna v Lee Van Corteza in a battle of the local hotshots, while Ronnie Alcano continues his title defence against Daryl Peach.

Efren Reyes, who seems to carry then hopes of the nation on his shoulders, will be under pressure as he goes up against European No.1 Konstantin Stepanov (Russia) who looked good today with two straight wins to qualify.

2005 Champion, Wu Chia-ching of Taiwan, faces a tester against in-form Italian Fabio Petroni on Table 2, while Alex Pagulayan who took the title in ’04, can look ahead to a clash with little known Vietnamese player Pham Tuan Ngoc.

The double elimination format in the opening round has seen a slew of top players make their way through and there will be plenty of top class 9 ball action as the drama unfolds at the Araneta Coliseum.