A star-studded Philippine squad reinforced its lofty reputation with another convincing victory Thursday in the 2014 World Pool Team Championship in Beijing, China.
The Filipinos, led by former world champion Dennis Orcollo and two-time women’s world 10-ball winner Rubilen Amit, crushed Indonesia, 4-0, to reach the quarterfinals of the prestigious tournament.
The squad will face either defending champion Chinese Taipei or Austria in the quarterfinals.
Just like in the elimination round, the Filipinos encountered token resistance in pulling off the victory with Orcollo setting the tone with his emphatic 6-0 win in the eight-ball singles event.
Carlo Biado and Lee Vann Corteza also got the job done in the eight-ball doubles event as the Filipinos coasted to another shutout victory after going unbeaten in three matches in the group stage.
The Filipinos came into the match buoyed by a 6-0 drubbing of Poland in their final group match with Amit also dumping her Polish counterpart, Katazyna Weslowska.
The Philippines also beat a formidable United States squad, 4-2, after opening its campaign with a win over Bulgaria in the four-team group A.
Team USA is composed of Oscar Dominguez, Hunter Lombardo, Corey Deuel and Jennifer Barretta
Two Chinese teams actually advanced to the knockout stages along with Singapore, Poland, Croatia, Sweden, Great Britain, Vietnam, Germany, Russia, Japan and United States.
Li He Wen, Wu Jiaqing, Chu Bign Chia, Han Yu and Chen Siming banner China 1 while Liu Haitao, Dang Ching Hu, Wang Can, Fu Xiaofang and Liu Shasha play for China 2.
The format of the tournament calls for each team to play six singles matches on alternate breaks with two competing in 8 ball, two in 9-ball and two in 10-ball with the female player required to play in the 10-ball mixed doubles match and a 9-ball match. No member of the team is permitted to play more than two matches per session.
An $80,000 purse awaits the champion team of the $300,000 tournament sanctioned by the World Pool Association. Cedelf P. Tupas