Pinoys blank Indonesians, gain Last 8

MANILA, Philippines - Team Philippines lived up to its billing and clobbered Indonesia, 4-0, to barge into the quarterfinals of the World Pool Team Championship yesterday at Tongzhou Luhe High School in Beijing, China.

Dennis Orcollo, Lee Vann Corteza, Carlo Biado and Rubilen Amit – all accomplished players in the international pool scene – blitzed past Bewi Simanjuntak M. Bewi, Rudy Susanto, Muhammad Fadly, and Silvana – to handily advance to the Last-8 of the $300,000 World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) tourney.

The Phl aces set up a high-powered duel with defending champion Chinese-Taipei, which turned back Austria, 4-2, in their dispute for a quarterfinal berth.

Former world champ Orcollo and the tandem of Lee Vann Corteza and Carlo Biado took care of business in the first two matches of the six-game showdown with Indonesia, ruling the 8-ball men’s singles, 6-0, and winning a hill-hill encounter in 8-ball men’s doubles, 6-5.

The Filipinos then swept the 9-ball men’s singles and women’s singles via identical winning scores of 8-4, to wrap up the win.

Phl entered the knockout stage as the top qualifier from Group A.

They earlier swept group hostilities Wednesday with a 6-0 spanking of Poland.

Orcollo, Corteza, Biado and Amit beat Poland’s Karol Skowerski, Tomasz Kaplan, Mateusz Sniegocki, and Katazyna Weslowska, 6-0, Wednesday to finish Group A undefeated with three wins and nine points.

The Polish, however, still advanced to the Final 16 after assembling six points on two victories and a loss.

Other Last-16 results saw China 1’s Li He Wen, Wu Jiaqing, Chu Bign Chia, Han Yu, and Chen Siming and Poland prevailing over separate foes to set up a quarterfinal entanglement.

China 1 dumped Singapore’s Chan Keng Kwang, Aloyisus Yapp, Koh Seng Ann Aaron, Charlene Chai Zeet Huey, Toh Lian Han, Hoe Shu Wah, 4-1, while the Polish team beat Croatia’s Josip Susnjara, Ivica Putnik, Marko Lisnic, and Antonijevic Zrinka via a similar scoreline.

China 2’s Liu Haitao, Dang Ching Hu, Wang Can, Fu Xiaofang, and Liu Shasha made it two-for-two for the host nation as they advanced after a 4-0 disposal of Sweden’s Anreas Gerven, Marcus Chamat, Tomas Larsson, Caroline Roos.

They will go up against Great Britain’s Daryl Peach, Karl Boyes, Chris Melling, and Allison Fisher, who stampedtheir  class on Vietnam’s Trung Le Quang, Tuan Nguyen Anh, Quan Do Hoang, and Le Doan Thi Ngoc, 4-1.

Germany’s Thorsten Hohmann, Ralf Souquet, Sebastian Staab, and Ina Kaplan edged Russia’s Konstantin Stepanov, Ruslan Chinakhov, Andrey Seroshtan, and Ann Mazhirina, 4-2, to forge a quarters faceoff with Japan’s Naoyuki Oi, Sasaaki Tanaka, Hayato Hijikata, and Chichiro Kawahara, who turned back USA’s Oscar Dominguez, Hunter Lombardo, Corey Deuel, and Jennifer Barretta, 4-1.