Defending champs whip pool foes; US nips India

Ralf Souquet and Thorsten Hohmann were just too much for Serbia’s Andrea Klasovic and Zoran Svilar, as an 8-1 victory yesterday sent the defending champion Germans to the second round of the World Cup of Pool at Robinsons Place Manila.

Souquet had a tougher time battling dehydration because of food poisoning as he and Hohmann dominated the Serbs.

The United States’ Rodney Morris and Shane Van Boening barely scraped past India’s Raj Hundal and Amar Khan, 8-7.

The Germans, bidding to become the first tandem to repeat as champions in the $250,000 event, will next face Thailand, an 8-4 winner over Malaysia, in a repeat of last year’s title match.

“The (final) score makes it look easy, but it’s not,” Souquet, the former world No. 1, said. “They have a few good rolls but missed some shots. Overall we played well, fair enough to win.

“I played well, but I felt very weak out there,” Souquet, who was treated at Cardinal Santos Hospital before the match, added.

The Philippine-B pairing of Efren “Bata” Reyes and Francisco “Django” Bustamante, champions here twice before, were still battling the Hong Kong’s Lee Chenman and Kenny Kwok.

Another Philippine team, made up of Dennis Orcollo and Lee Van Corteza, debuts today against Switzerland’s Dimitri Jungo and Ronni Regli.

Alex Pagulayan, a dual citizen representing Canada this time, and partner John Morra scored an 8-7 over Sweden’s Marcus Chamat and Andrea Gerwen, and could end up meeting Reyes and Bustamante in the next round.