Orcollo, Gabica, Mazon advance
Top Filipino hope Dennis Orcollo and veteran Antonio Gabica bested their Taiwanese rivals to barge into the last 16 with in-form Jundel Mazon in the 2012 World 9-Ball Championship on Thursday in Doha, Qatar.
Orcollo, last year’s world No. 1, repulsed Hsu Kai-lin, 11-8, while Gabica, an Asian Games gold medalist, downed Yang Ching-shun, 11-9.
It was Mazon who put up the best Filipino performance as the 36-year-old from Cavite stormed to an 8-1 lead and went on to rout Russian Konstantin Stepanov, 11-3.
Pool maestro Efren “Bata” Reyes faltered in the homestretch and yielded to German Dominic Jentsch, 10-11.
Earlier, Lee Vann Corteza bowed out in the last 32, losing to multi-titled Mika Immonen of Finland, 5-11.
Also advancing were Germany’s Ralf Soquet, China’s Lee Hewen, Kuwait’s Omar Al-Shaheen, the Netherlands’ Nick van den Berg and Italy’s Bruno Muratore.
Soquet tamed Venezuela’s Jonny Martinez, 11-7; Lee bested Canada’s John Mora, 11-8; Al-Shaheen whipped compatriot Khaled Al Mutairi, 11-6; Van den Berg edged China’s Han Haoxiang, 11-9; and Muratore nipped Taiwan’s Fu Che-wei, 11-10.
Far from his best form, Reyes bested Singaporean Toh Lian-han, 11-6, on the TV table Wednesday as he joined Corteza, Mazon, Gabica and Orcollo in the round of 32.
Corteza downed Belgian Serge Das, 11-4, while Gabica bested Austrian Mario He, 11-7.
Mazon, who booted out American Shane Van Boening from the knockout stage, continued his rise with an 11-9 victory over two-time world champion Ronnie Alcano. Roy Luarca
