Bañares clinches round of 64 slot
18-year-old wunderkind stuns Hohmann
By Musong R. Castillo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:22:00 10/02/2008
Filed Under: Billiards, Snooker and Pool
MANILA, Philippines—Jericho Bañares swears there’s a lot of difference playing for money and country that he feels more burden when the red-white-and-blue—rather than the green bucks—is on the line.
“There’s a lot more pressure playing here, when you’re watched by your countrymen,” Bañares said in Filipino Wednesday night, moments after nipping Thorsten Hohmann, 9-7, for a seat in the Last 64 of the World Ten Ball Championships at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.
“In money games, when you lose (a match), only the manager (financier) will get mad at you,” the 18-year-old wunderkind explained after winning his second straight match against the former world 9-ball champion this year.
“But in here, if you lose, you will be letting a lot of the fans down.”
Bañares thus became the fifth Filipino to book a seat in the first round of the knockout stage, joining qualifiers Victor Arpilleda and Demosthenes Pulpul and veteran Leonardo Didal and the fancied Marlon Manalo.
Jeffrey De Luna, the flamboyant power-breaker who is wearing a spiked top dyed blonde with streaks of red, lost a first match Wednesday morning and was gunning for a seat in the Last 64 at presstime against Marco Tschudi of Switzerland.
De Luna, one of the Big Three expected to carry the fight for the Filipinos here along with Manalo and the ousted Antonio Gabica, lost to Austrian Martin Kempter, 9-2, earlier.
Picking up the game as a 9-year-old in Antipolo, Bañares did not pursue a college education to take up pool as a career, and it has certainly paid dividends as that win against Hohmann solidified his status as the Philippines’ fastest-rising star.
“I will just try to play my game starting tomorrow (Thursday, in the KO stages),” Bañares, who has played in financed money games for as big as P500,000 and won the RP junior title in March, said.
Bañares, who also defeated Hohmann in the quarterfinals of the Mandaluyong Cup, came back from a 0-2 deficit against the poker-faced German ace, winning six straight racks using precision potting and smart defensive plays that had his foe dumbfounded.
Trailing 7-8, Hohmann, who held world championships in 9-ball and straight pool at different stages of a checkered career, had a chance to make it a hill-hill game, having to break on the 16th rack.
He seemed well on the way to knotting the match, until he played a safety on the orange 5 that left just a little opening for Bañares, who went through that small hole by playing a magnificent kick shot that signaled Hohmann’s doom.
Another player worth watching in the knockout stages was blonde Austrian bombshell Jasmine Ouschan, who ousted former world straight ball king Thomas Engert of Germany, 9-4, in a featured match at center table.
Ouschan, a 22-year-old ranked No. 1 among women in the world, erased a 2-3 deficit and wriggled free from a 4-4 game by winning the final five racks, eliminating Engert while becoming the second woman in the Last 64.
Liu Shin-mei of Taiwan, the Asian Games 9-ball champion, was the first woman to advance after a 9-5 victory over Sit Shun Ching of Hong Kong in one of the early afternoon matches.
The only woman casualty in the $400,000 event was Lin Yuan-chun, the reigning world 9-ball queen who first absorbed a loss to Ouschan before bowing out after a 0-9 loss to American superstar Corey Deuel late Tuesday.
“I feel great, really relieved,” Ouschan, who has been campaigning against men ever since starting a career in the sport 12 years ago, said. “The group matches were tough. Against Engert, you have to take your best game on the table.
“I just go out there and try to fight it all the way out,” she said after winning her third straight match against the veteran German to up her head-to-head record to 3-2.
Other matches saw Chinese Taipei’s double world champion Wu Chia-ching and reigning world junior titlist Ko Pin Yi also advance to the round of 64.
Wu, winner of the Puerto Princesa leg of the Philippine Pool Tour, subdued Mateusz Sniegocki, 9-6, while Ko outplayed Korean Jeong Young Hwa, 9-5.
Also advancing to the round of 64 is Ralf Souquet of Germany.
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