MANILA, Philippines—Marlon Manalo continued to have a rosy campaign in the first World Ten Ball Championships. But sadly for Antonio Gabica, the end of the road came Tuesday night.
Manalo, the burly, former Asian snooker champion, had a truly easy time against Italian Fabio Petroni, prevailing, 9-1, to barge into the Last 64, before watching close pal Gabica lose his cool—and his match, 9-7—against Martin Larsen of Denmark.
That was the second straight loss in the $400,000 event for Gabica, who blasted what he said was a disrespectful act by the Danish No. 1 in their well-watched match at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.
“You’re crazy,” the Filipino, who came back from 0-6 down to draw level at 6-6, told Larsen before breaking on the 13th rack.
Sensing that momentum had swung in favor of his foe, the lanky Larsen played with Gabica’s mind just when the Filipino was about to break by checking the balls in the rack.
“It’s a sign of disrespect,” Manalo, who was at the stands cheering on Gabica, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net). “He (Larsen) had no business checking the rack because he was not the one breaking. It was very unsportsmanlike.”
Gabica lost the 13th rack to fall behind, 6-7, before Larsen took the hill by playing a difficult 1-10 combination.
The Filipino’s last gasp came in the 16th rack, when he dropped a ball on the break but was left with a truly difficult table. He sank the yellow 1, but played a poor preparation for the No. 2 and scratched, giving Larsen victory.
Still piqued, Gabica waited for Larsen at the corridor and challenged the Danish ace to a money game for $10,000 with a two-handicap to boot. Larsen declined.
Gabica’s exit overshadowed the advance of several unheralded Filipinos led by qualifiers Demonthenes Pulpul and Victor Arpilleda and the veteran Leonardo Didal.
Also staying in the hunt was the flamboyant Jeffrey De Luna, who hammered Max Eberle, 9-7, in one of the late matches Monday night. De Luna will gun for a seat in the first round of the knockout phase against Austrian Martin Kempter on Wednesday.
Pulpul, a 23-year-old from Cagayan de Oro City, showed composure and poise in thwarting Taiwan’s Ching Sung-yang in a hill-hill game, 9-8, even as Didal bested German Christian Weigoni, 9-7, to advance.
Making the Final 64 assured Pulpul of the biggest paycheck of his young career—at least $2,000 (about P92,000).
A winner of the gold medal in the 1997 Southeast Asian Games’ straight pool event, the 45-year-old Arpilleda established a comfortable lead early before subduing Korean Kim Woong-dae, 9-5.
Two other Filipinos joined Gabica to the showers: Florencio Banar and Elvis Calasang, who lost, 9-5, to Lee Po-hsien of Chinese Taipei and 9-3 to reigning national junior champion Jericho Banares, respectively.
Banares, an 18-year-old who took his national title in March before making a ripple in the open bracket from there, is still awaiting his next foe in the losers’ bracket in a match also scheduled for Wednesday.
Reigning 9-ball king Daryl Peach of England also advanced following a 9-3 triumph over Japanese Kazuo Furuta.
“I feel much better now than in my first match,” said the clean-shaven Peach. “I like my chances in this tournament, but I do believe that it would be a wide-open race for the title and that includes the ladies in the men’s turf.”
Double world champion Ralf Souquet of Germany served notice of his readiness by scoring an easy 9-1 victory over Patrick Menillo of Italy.
The German ace vowed to add the 10-ball crown to his collection and become the first player to win world titles in three different pool events.
Also winning were Luis Condo of Austria, Christian Tuvi of Uruguay, Jonni Fulcher of Scotland, Alwi of Indonesia, Charlie Williams of the United States, Sascha Tege of Germany, Fajad Mohmmadi of Qatar, Lu Hui-chan, Ko Pin-yi and Chu Hung-ming of Chinese Taipei, Yannick Beaufils of France, Fu Che-wei of Chinese Taipei, Markus Juva of Finland and Satoshi Kawabata of Japan.
