32 players take center stage in Puerto Princesa Cup

PUERTO PRINCESA – Thirty-two tough competitors, including several double world champions, world and national youth titlists, and other veteran campaigners will take center stage today, Friday, in the opening of the Puerto Princesa Mayor's Cup, the second leg of the Philippine Pool Tour.

This bustling resort city, nicknamed "The City In The Forest" because of its lush vegetation, will host the three-day event to be held at the Puerto Princesa City Coliseum with all eyes focusing on the big guns and rising stars from Germany, Taiwan and the Philippines.

Two-time world champions Ralf Souquet and Thorsten Hohmann of Germany, Chia-Ching Wu and Jung-Lin Chang of Taiwan, and reigning world junior champion Ko Pin-Yi banner the field of invaders.

But they will be tested by the formidable field of Filipino players led by Antonio Gabica, winner of the first PPT leg last month, Marlon Manalo, and Jericho Banares, 2008 Philippine junior champion and a standout in the Mandaluyong Mayor's Cup.

Souquet, currently the biggest money earner among billiard players this year with $106,786, has his eyes set on the $10,000 top prize in this event organized by the Billiards and Snookers Congress of the Philippines and supported by San Miguel Beer and Puerto Princesa City Mayor Edward Hagedorn.

Hohmann, the 2003 World Pool titlist and winner of the IPT North American Open Championship, is also one of the favorites, along with Wu, the 2005 World 9- Ball and 8-Ball champion.

Thirteen pool players qualified for the Puerto Princesa leg Tuesday at the end of the elimination round. They were led by Ko Pin-Yi, power breaker Jeff de Luna and two-time national youth finalist Jordan Legaspi. The other players who advanced were Oliver Villafuerte, Wang Ming, Arturo Palma, Richard Alinsub, Jorge Dacer, Boots Augusto, Rocky Tullao, Edgar Acaba, Romeo Silvano and Raymund Faraon.

They join the 17 seeded players who earlier qualified for the main tournament by virtue of their performance in the Mandaluyong Cup and their standings in world pool rankings. They are: Souquet, Hohmann, Wu, Antonio Gabica, Marlon Manalo, Leonardo Andam, Jericho Bañares, Mario Tolentino, Leonardo Didal, Chien-Te Chung, Gerry Watson, Kenji Taguchi, Allan Soliman, Luis Saberdo, Junbert Ogang, Courtney Symons and Jung-Lin Chang.

Puerto Princesa will field two local bets – Jade Samson and Jonathan Corpuz – in the tournament. They won their spots by topping the qualifiers held in the Palawan capital.   

Ko, a Physical Education student in Taipei, who started playing competitive billiards at the age of 12, beat Roland Garcia, 9-7, for his third victory in the eliminations.

De Luna, who was relegated to the loser's bracket Tuesday following his loss to Jin Hu-Dang, 6-9, vented his ire on Resty Labastida, 9-1, to make the cut.

Legaspi crushed Dang, 9-6; Wang scuttled Rocky Tullao, 9-5; Dacer whipped Labastida, 9-4; Augusto nipped Romeo Silvano, 9-7; Alinsub edged Elvis Calasang, 9-8; Villafuerte outlasted Fu Jin-Bo, 9-7; and Palma squeaked past Chu Hung-Ming, 9-8.

In the loser's bracket, Tullao tripped Rollo, 9-8; Acaba defeated Silverio Tulabing, 9-7; and Silvano ripped Raymund Faraon, 9-4.

Faraon earned the last ticket to the Puerto Cup after defeating Tulabing in the playoff finals, 9-3.

Souquet stuns Vs Ko Pin-yi

A 18 year-old World Junior Champion Ko Pin-yi performed surperbly to defeat five-times Masters champion Ralf Souquet of Germany 8-3.

Belying his youth, the confident Ko played like a seasoned veteran as he dismantled an out of sorts Souquet to advance to the quarter-finals.

“Before the match I was very excited and a bit nervous. Souquet is a very good player with a great safety game, but he didn’t play so good today,” said Ko.

“I played good today though. I had three good run outs and if I play like this tomorrow I have a chance to win the tournament,” he added.

The 18 year-old, who also won the coveted Super Cup in Taiwan at the end of 2007, raced into an early 3-0 lead before Souquet stole the fourth game. Ko though, restored his three rack lead before the World 8 Ball Champion began to claw his way back.

Some skilful safety play from Souquet gave him the seventh game on the three foul rule, as the 2 ball lay aside the 8 on the long rail.

The ‘Kaiser’ scratched off the break in the next to derail his revival and with ball in hand Ko ran out to get to 5-3 ahead. The super confident Ko ran out the next rack to surge into a 6-3 lead.

Ko needed to play safe in the next but failed to tuck the cue ball behind the orange 5. Ralf though, misjudged his own attempt at a snooker and Ko banked the 2 ball across table to set up another excellent run out to reach the hill at 7-3.

Unfortunately the Taiwanese came up dry on the break but his opponent missed the 1 ball into the centre pocket. Ko tried to kick it in but also missed before Souquet had his last shot of the match as he missed an elementary pot to give Ko a great chance.

The youngster grabbed it with both hands to run out and take the match 8-3 to set up a quarter final clash with either Tony Drago or Niels Feijen.

2008 World Pool Masters Site Starts Today

Matchroom Sport is delighted to announce that www.worldpoolmasters.com , the Official Online Home of the PartyPoker.net World Pool Masters, is now live.

With the tournament being held for the first time ever in Las Vegas, the site will be your first port of call for news, player profiles, results, stories and pictures of what promises to be a hugely exciting event featuring some of the world’s top players.

Four World 9-ball Champions – Daryl Peach, Mika Immonen, Ralf Souquet, Alex Pagulayan – will be taking part in the event as well as some of the biggest names in the game, including Shane Van Boening, Francisco Bustamante, Niels Feijen and Corey Deuel.

All will be vying for the $20,000 top prize.

The World Pool Masters will be taking place at the Riviera Hotel and Casino from Thursday 9th to Sunday 11th May with afternoon and evening sessions daily, concluding with the final scheduled to commence around 9.15pm on Sunday evening.

www.worldpoolmasters.com will feature exclusive interviews with the stars who make up the field as well as comments and predictions from the big names of world pool.

Bookmark www.worldpoolmasters.com today for full details and information about the 16th annual running of one of pool’s most prestigious events.

Souquet Wins World 8-Ball Championship

Ronnie Alcano Reign as a WORLD champion came to an end Friday courtesy of the same man he beat to achieve full stardom two years ago. Ralf Souquet of Germany finally exacted revenge with a 13-9 conquest of defending champion Alcano in the finals of the 2008 World 8-Ball Championship in Fujairah City, United Arab Emirates. The clean-shaven German, who lost to Alcano in the finals of the World Pool (9-ball) Championship in Manila in 2006, pounced on a poor start by the Filipino to grab a 3-0 lead which he skillfully protected throughout.

Souquet, who bagged the top purse of $60,000, became just the fourth cue artist -- after Efren "Bata" Reyes, Taiwanese Wu Chia-ching and Alcano -- to hold both the world 8-ball and 9-ball plums. He won his 9-ball title in 1996.

The 35-year-old Alcano, top gun of star-studded Bugsy Promotions of businessman Perry Mariano and the Billiards Managers and Players Association of the Philippines (BMPAP), won all his previous matches in astounding fashion, while Souquet had to go through the back door after losing his opening match in the $200,000 tournament. But in the game that mattered most, Alcano started sluggishly and eventually settled for the $20,000 runner-up prize.

Alcano later apologized for failing to live up to expectations, saying the breaks went against him early. "I promise to redeem myself and give honor to our country the next time," Alcano vowed. Alcano won the lag but his two straight dry breaks had Souquet taking a 3-0 lead, which the latter stretched to five after 11 racks.

The Filipino then caught fire and pocketed five of the next six racks to close in at 9-8. He had a chance to even the match when the German broke dry in Rack 18, but he was unable to clean it up.

Souquet's victory meant the two world titles are now in Europe. The world 9-ball tiara is in the hands of Englishman Darryl Peach, who claimed it last year at the expense of Filipino Roberto Gomez.

The next best Filipino finisher was world No. 1 Dennis Orcollo, who made it to the semifinals and bagged $10,000. Warren Kiamco of BMPAP and Negros Billiards Stable of Jonathan Sy finished fifth worth $6,000, while Alan Cuartero received $3,000 for reaching the Last 16.

Ralf Souquet: Paris Open 9-Ball – Title defended

For the sixth time, the Paris Open 9-Ball were organized and as the defending champion, I was seeded fort he final round of 16 players. The two Dutchmen Nick van den Berg and Niels Feijen as well as the English player Imran Majid were also directly invited to the final round.

On day one, the qualification rounds were played with 64 participants and some European top players qualified for the final round. In the previous years, this was not possible, because only French players could play the qualification stages.
The format was a KO bracket with matches in races to 10 with winner break and the venue was the private club „Clichy Montmartre“.

My first opponent was Frenchman Emmanuel Lemaire, against whom I had recently played at a EuroTour event. As before in the Netherlands, Lemaire seemed to have too much respect and made a few easy mistakes. The result was an undisputed 10-2.

In the quarter-finals, I was opposed to the next Frenchman, Stephane Cohen. This was a much tougher task and I managed to improve my game. Even if my game was all but perfect, I was in full control of the match, Cohen made a few mistakes and I won 10-5.
In the semi-final, I had to play against Niels Feijen (NED), against whom I had not always convinced in the past. I tried once more to play better and partly succeeded. I finally deserved to win 10-5 and had entered once more after 2007 the final of the Paris Open.

My opponent in the final was an old acquaintance, since I had played Yannick Beaufils (FRA) already at the IPT tour and last year at the Paris Open. Beaufils had eliminated in the first round of the final bracket Imran Majid, than last year’s runner-up Vincent Facquet (FRA) and in the semi-final Jonni Fulcher who plays for Switzerland.

As expected, the final was a thriller, even if both players did not enjoy lucky break shots. So, the match went on a quiet pace and we had a few safety battles. I had gained a small advantage right from the beginning of the match and was leading by two and three racks, but then Beaufils came back into the match and even equalled the score at 8-8. I was about to trail for the first time, when the French player made an incredible mistake by missing an easy 7 ball. I could run out the rack and re-gain the lead at 9-8 and the trophy was in reach. I ran out the last rack and had won the title at the Paris Open for the second consecutive time.

Final Names added to 2008 World Pool Masters Line-up

The final names have been added to the players’ roster for the forthcoming 2008 PartyPoker.net World Pool Masters which takes place at the Riviera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas from May 9 to May 11.

Filipino superstars Francisco Bustamante and Alex Pagulayan have confirmed their attendance as well as top-rated Europeans Ralf Souquet (Germany) and Niels Feijen of Holland.

With 16 players in the field competing for a $62,000 prize fund, event promoters Matchroom Sport believe they have assembled the strongest line-up yet in the 16 year history of the event.

“With four World 9 Ball Champions, six US Open Champions and a host of other title-holders in the field, I believe that this will be the toughest ever World Pool Masters,” said Matchroom Sport Chairman Barry Hearn.

“With winner breaks, race to eight matches on the toughest equipment it will take a series of fantastic performances over the three days to lift this prestigious trophy,” he added.

Other recent confirmations include 2001 US Open Champion Corey Deuel and a quartet of stars recently qualified from the Euro Tour.

They are the latest English 9 Ball sensation Mark Gray, Germany’s dangerous Christian Reimering, up-and-coming Italian player Bruno Muratore and 2006 Mosconi Cup player Imran Majid (England).

World Junior Champion, the 18 year-old Ko Pin-Yi of Taiwan cemented his credentials to a Masters spot at the weekend by coming from 14-4 down to beat Dennis Orcollo 15-14 and lift the Brunswick Thailand 9 Ball Open.

Elsewhere, 2003 Masters Champion Tony Drago won the Paris Open at the weekend, his first Euro Tour title, after three losing finals.

2008 World Pool Masters Field:

Daryl Peach (England)
Thomas Engert (Germany)
Mika Immonen (Finland)
Tony Drago (Malta)
Shane Van Boening (USA)
Rodney Morris (USA)
Francisco Bustamante (Philippine)
Alex Pagulayan (Philippines)
Ko Pin-ye (Chinese Taipei)
Niels Feijen (Netherlands)
Ralf Souquet (Germany)
Corey Deuel (USA)
Mark Gray (England)
Christian Reimering (Germany)
Bruno Moratore (Italy)
Imran Majid (England)

Souquet over Bustamante for Derby 9-Ball Title

It took two sets to do it, but Ralf Souquet has defeated Francisco Bustamante to win the Derby City Classic 9-Ball Division.

Souquet came into the finals as the favorite with an undefeated record and two wins over John Schmidt under his belt to get him comfortable with the speed of the TV table while Bustamante had been sitting for hours taking advantage of back to back byes.

Souquet took a quick 2-0 lead, but Bustamante took complete control of the match after that and won seven straight games for a 7-2 win.

Souquet used his buyback option and the players got ready to play one more time to determine the champion. This time it was Bustamante who took a 1-0 lead, but Souquet won the next three games for a 3-1 lead. Bustamante took advantage of two missed balls in rack five to narrow Souquet's lead to one at 3-2, but then it was Souquet who took control of the match and won the next four straight games for the 7-2 win.

Souquet earned $17,500 for first place, while Bustamante settled for $8,800. Bustamante was also consoled with the $20,000 all around bonus. One pocket winner Gabe Owen took 2nd in the all around and Souquet's 9-ball win earned him third place.