RP still on track for World Pool crown
MANILA, Philippines—Dennis Orcollo and Roberto Gomez surprisingly came up with the clowning antics that endeared them to this pool-crazy nation. And they played the kind of game that kept the country on track toward retaining the World Cup of Pool championship.
Doing chest thumps, fist pumps and giving out high fives that went with the occasional tribal yell, Orcollo-Gomez won six frames in a row en route to bundling out Spain, 8-4, Friday night to make the quarterfinal round of the $250,000 event at the Robinson’s Place in Ermita.
Team Philippines B erased a 1-2 deficit using an assortment of breaks and some pretty spectacular shots for that six-frame string and a 7-2 lead that kept the befuddled Spaniards David Alcaide and Francisco Sanchez Ruiz cemented to their seats.
And in between those great shots, Orcollo-Gomez played to the crowd, making up somewhat for the ouster of the charismatic Efren “Bata” Reyes-Francisco Bustamante tandem that was shown the door Thursday night by giant-killer Indonesia.
Reyes and Bustamante were the defending champions, but the Philippines can make it three World Cup of Pool titles if Orcollo-Gomez goes all the way.
Next up for Orcollo-Gomez is the Finnish pair of Mika Immonen and Markus Juva, 8-1 winners over Holland in an earlier match.
“It was our way of trying to get nervousness out of the way,” Gomez, the 2007 World 9-Ball runner up to Daryl Peach, said of their celebratory antics which another SRO crowd appreciated.
Meanwhile, Germany showed its real strength by ripping Russia, 8-1, to also make the quarterfinal round.
“It was almost perfect,” Ralf Souquet, whose partnership with Thorsten Hohmann finished second here last year, said. “Obviously, I am more satisfied compared to our first match and there’s still much room for improvement.”
Souquet, who is playing with Oliver Ortmann this year, said that he would have wanted to face his old tormentors Reyes and Bustmante in the semifinals, just to get revenge for last year’s loss.
“I would’ve liked Philippines A (Reyes-Bustmante) to be in because the crowd would be even more crazy,” Souquet said of the defending champions that were bundled out by Indonesia, 6-8, Thursday night.
“But it doesn’t matter who we face,” he said. “Every opponent will be tough.”
Souquet and Ortmann didn’t give Konstantin Stepanov and Rusian Chinakhov a chance by winning the first seven racks, the same manner—and score—by which Immonen and Juva prevailed.
France also scored a stunner with Francois Cottance and Stephan Cohen, ranked 13th, turning back the highly-fancied Daryl Peach-Karl Boyes team from England, 8-6.
The French will play Germany for a place in the Final Four today.
Rodney Morris and Johnny Archer of the United States, the second seeds, escaped the rash of Day 3 upsets by coming back from 4-7 down to prevail and advance opposite rock-solid Taiwan.
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