Immonen, pal seal title duel with Poles

Finland, starring the veteran Mika Immonen and burly Petri Makkonen, sealed a title clash with Poland and its little-known aces yesterday for the World Cup of Pool championship at Robinson’s Place in Manila.

Immonen-Makkonen, the pair that took out Efren “Bata” Reyes and Francisco “Django” Bustamante of Philippines-B Saturday night, won the final four racks in its semifinal match against the United States’ Rodney Morris and Shane Van Boe-ning and earned the chance to play for the $60,000 top prize.

While they were decisive against the charismatic Filipino pair two nights ago, this time the Finns were tentative early against the Americans, trailing, 2-5, before winning seven of the last nine racks to reach the finals for just the second time.

Finland first made the final in 2007 in Rotterdam, and it ended in heartbreak for Immonen and teammate Marcus Juva as they bowed, 12-13, to China.

Karol Skowerski and Wojciech Szewcyk, meanwhile, ripped Chinese-Taipei’s Han En-hsu and Hsin Ting-chen, 9-4.

“This is impossible,” Skowerski said, moments after their domination of the Taiwanese. “One week ago, we weren’t even thinking of the final (match). The semifinal (alone) is historical (for us). Maybe we can even win this tournament.”

The final match is a race-to-10 affair with the score tied after six racks at press time.

“We are not the strongest team (back home),” the 18-year-old Szewcyk said. “We are not even top two in Poland, but what he did here is amazing.”