| World Cup Of Pool | ||
| Friday, August 25th 2006 | ||
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| Favourites Move Into Quarter-finals TOURNAMENT favourites Philippines moved into the last eight but were made to work hard against 16th seeds Malaysia. The Filipino pairing of Francisco Bustamante and Efren Reyes were the most impressive of all the sides in the first round as they defeated Malta 9-0 in the only whitewash of the tournament so far. But the meeting with the Malaysian team of Patrick Ooi Fook Yuen and Ibrahim Bin Amir proved far tougher and the Philippines will be glad to have won, having secured a 9-5 success. Bustamante was happy his side won the match. He said: We played well enough we missed some balls, but the most important thing is the win. The crowd was great and they prayed for me and Efren. But it was good support and we really appreciate all the Filipino people in the UK coming out to cheer for us. Ooi Fook Yuen won the lag but Philippines were soon at the table again although Bustamante missed an attempted pot on the blue two when he had to jump over the pink four. That left the blue two in open play and Malaysia won the rack, the first that Philippines had conceded in the competition. Things got worse for the No.1 seeds as Bustamante missed a shot on the yellow one into the top right pocket that left the ball hanging over the pocket but when Ooi Fook Yuen scratched on the brown seven that enabled Philippines to equalise. Malaysia ran out the next from the break but Philippines, who had every successful shot cheered by a large, partisan crowd at the Newport Centre, quickly levelled to make it 2-2. Ooi Fook Yuen successfully jumped over the brown seven to pocket the yellow one but the cue ball was left in a bad position so his teammate Ibrahim Bin Amir also grabbed the jump cue. However, this time it was not as successful as he failed to down the red three and offered Philippines the chance to move into the lead for the first time, which they accepted. When they broke and ran out in the next rack the lead was suddenly two racks and, considering how well Philippines had played so far in this tournament, it meant Malaysia already had an uphill task. But a poor safety shot by Bustamante on the 1-ball saw the lead reduced to one and Django was not at his best as he missed an attempt on the red three along the rail as Malaysia fought back from 4-2 down to 4-4. Another Bustamante mistake, when he failed to make the 1-ball safe, again let in Malaysia and they should have taken their third rack in succession but Bin Amir missed the 9-ball and it became 5-4 to Philippines when they could have easily fallen behind. Philippines made it 6-4 in the next but Malaysia refused to give up and took the 11th rack to make it 6-5. However, Philippines turned on the style to take the next three racks as they became the first team to secure their place in the quarter-finals. Reyes believed the Philippines still had a lot of work to do for them to secure the $60,000 top prize. He said: Its hard to say if we will win the tournament but we can play well and if we make the final, maybe we can win it. Picture and Article courtesy of www.worldcupofpool.com |
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