More Big Names at 2007 Philippines World Pool Championship

A total of 32 billiard players have now earned their positions in the knock-out stages at the 2007 Philippines World Pool Championship.  A further four groups played on Sunday in a total of 40 matches in the $400,000 event.

The most impressive showing of the day came from Francisco Bustamante of Philippines, who ran seven straight racks against Jeong Young-hwa of Korea en-route to a 9-0 whitewash.

Also in Group 9, Oliver Ortmann was one of a trio of former champions who made their way through with 2-0 records, including a superb 9-6 win over American Corey Deuel.

But Deuel (pictured above) was celebrating later in the day as he battled back to eliminate Filipino Antonio Lining, who had the unwanted record of being the first player from the Philippines to not make the Last 64.

Another former world champion performing well was Mika Immonen (Finland), who sealed his passage with an ill-tempered win over America�s Jeremy Jones, and the Philippines' Alex Pagulayan.

Other Filipinos advancing were Ramil Gallego who hammered Asian 9 Ball Tour winner Chang Jung-ling of Taiwan 9-1 to be the top seed from Group 7.

Leevan Corteza also went through but not before dropping a game to battling Serbian Goran Mladenovic. The Pinoy star dumped Jeremy Jones out of the competition in the final match on the Group 12 losers' side.

For Mladenovic it was a day to remember. Following his against-the-odds win over Corteza, he was well beaten by rising star Karl Boyes of England.

However, he made it through at the last with a gritty showing against Tyler Edey (Canada), that saw Edey dog a 9 ball to gift the Serb a 9-7 win.

Other notables on their way home include 2004 World Pool Championship runner-up Chang Pei-wei (Taiwan) and quality Filipino Antonio Lining.

The remaining 64 players compete on Monday and Tuesday, with the last 64 phase commencing on Wednesday 7th November.

Taking place over nine days, the event is televised live for over 60 hours by ESPN Star Sports of Asia and Sky Sports in the UK as well as being available over the internet via this website.

The format is groups of eight players competing in double elimination, with two wins seeing you through to the next round and two losses spelling defeat.

Play starts tomorrow (Monday) at 3.30pm as a further four groups battle it out.

Among those in action include - Ralf Souquet (Germany), Raj Hundal (England), Thorsten Hohmann (Germany), Fu Che-wei (Chinese Taipei), Thomas Engert (Germany), Li He-wen (China) and the unpredictable American Earl 'The Pearl' Strickland.

Local fans should have plenty to cheer about as Leonardo Andam, Jeff De Luna and Marlon Manalo are all in action.

Countries represented so far in the Last 64
1. Philippines (8) - Ronnie Alcano, Francisco Bustamante, Joven Bustamante, Leevan Corteza, Antonio Gabica, Ramil Gallego and Alex Pagulayan
2. Chinese Taipei (4) - Chang Jun-lin, Lu Hui-chan, Wu Chia-ching and Yang Ching-shun
3. Germany (2) - Oliver Ortmann and Harald Stolka.
Holland (2) - Alex Lely and Nick Van Den Berg.
Vietnam (2) - Luong Chi Dung and Pham Tuan Ngoc.
USA (2) - Corey Deuel and Charlie Williams.
7. Canada (1) - Alain Martel
Croatia (1) - Philipp Stojanovic
England (1) - Karl Boyes
Finland (1) - Mika Immonen
Hungary (1) - Vilmos Foldes
Indonesia (1) - Muhammad Zulfikri
Japan (1) - Kenichi Uchigaki
Malta (1) - Tony Drago
Poland (1) - Radoslaw Babica
Serbia (1) - Goran Mladenovic
Singapore (1) - Chan Keng Kwang
Spain (1) - David Alcaide