MANILA, Philippines–DRAGGED into a safety and shotmaking battle, the two geniuses of the game representing the Philippines faltered and the World Cup of Pool lost its defending champion in the second round last night.
Muhammad Zulfikri and Ricky Yang of Indonesia shocked the Philippine A team of Efren ‘Bata’ Reyes and Francisco Bustamante with an 8-6 victory by adopting the Filipinos’ own brand of play and in their backyard as well.
Playing confidently all throughout, the 16th-seeded Indonesians launched their rally from 2-3, winning three straight racks to grab the lead for good by outsmarting the Filipinos defensively and making incredible shots when they had to.
“We felt the pressure. We didn’t play according to plan,” Bustamante told the Inquirer in Filipino after admitting that they let a horde of their countrymen down. “Our position plays didn’t work that well.”
The Indonesians, who will meet the winner of the China-Italy duel in the quarterfinals, surprisingly won in a battle of safeties with two of the greatest, smartest players in the world, winning the 11th rack to go 6-5 up.
Flashing razor-sharp form again, Taiwan earlier became the first team to reach the quarterfinal round after a thorough 8-2 whipping of Japan.
Former world junior champion Ko Pin-yi and the methodical Chang Jung-lin turned a close match into a rout by winning the final five frames after Naoyuki Oi and Toru Kuribayashi had threatened at 2-3.
Taiwan, represented here by a totally new partnership after previous teams got no farther than the Final Eight, has dropped just a total of four racks in two matches and will go into the quarterfinals the clear favorite against either the United States or Poland.
Getting out of tight spots by using the jump shot with uncanny precision, the Taiwanese pair could seal a potentially explosive semifinal showdown with the Philippine B pair of Dennis Orcollo and Roberto Gomez.
The much-ballyhooed US pair of Rodney Morris and Johnny Archer went through the wringer before prevailing, 8-7, over Swedes Marcus Chamat and Thomas Mehtala in their first round duel.
The Americans, the second-ranked team in this 31-nation, $250,000 event, blew a 7-2 lead and were sitting as Chamat broke dry on the 15th rack. Left with a wide-open table, the US pair cleaned up.
Morris-Archer advanced opposite the dangerous Polish pair of Mariuz Skoneckzny and Radislaw Babica, 8-6 winners over Malta’s Tony Drago and Alex Borg, for a place in the quarterfinals at 6 tonight.
Fourteenth-ranked Spain also took care of its first round assignment, with the veteran David Alcaide and Francisco Sanchez Ruiz posting an 8-4 whipping of Vietnam’s Luong Chi Dung and Do Hoang Quan.
Niels Feijen and Huidji See of Holland, the sixth seed, made short work of Austria’s Mario He and former world ladies champion Jasmin Ouschan, 8-3 to move up against the 11th ranked Finnish tandem of Mika Immonen and Markus Juva.
Immonen-Juva ripped Singapore’s Chan Keng Kwang and Toh Lian Han, 8-2, duplicating the most lopsided win that the methodical Taiwanese team of Ko Pin-yi and Chang Jung-lin posted against Malaysia Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, Orcollo and Gomez play their second round match at around 7:30 tonight against Alcayde-Sanchez-Ruiz for a place in the Final Eight.
Orcollo-Gomez downed the erratic Croatian team of Philipp Stojanovic and Karlo Dalmatin, 8-4, also Wednesday night in a game where the Filipinos almost paid dearly for using the soft break.
“We will just apply a little more force on our soft break,” Orcollo told Inquirer Sports in Filipino, saying that he and Gomez are not ready to lose after their hectic preparation in the last three weeks.
“We weren’t just that lucky (in the first round with our break),” Gomez, second placer to Englishman Daryl Peach in the World 9-Ball championship three years ago, added, also in Filipino. “But it will come.”