PH pool aces nail World Pool final slot

REFUSING to wilt under pressure, the Philippines inched closer to the World Pool Team Championship title after bundling out the defending champion and the highly-touted host squad Friday in Beijing, China.

The squad made up of Dennis Orcollo, Lee Vann Corteza, Carlo Biado and Rubilen Amit sustained its sensational run with a 4-2 dumping of Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals, before posting a 4-0 shutout of powerhouse China 1 in the last four.

The wins gave the Filipinos the first finals berth in the tournament that dangles $80,000 for the champion. Japan and China 2 are disputing the other finals spot as of press time.

The Filipinos mustered enough resolve to survive the game Taiwanese who brought back the same championship winning side from 2012 in Chang Jun-lin, Ko Pin-yi, Fu Che-wei and Chou Chieh-yu. Chinese Taipei prevailed over Austria, 4-1, in the round of 16 where the Philippines whitewashed Indonesia, 4-0.

With the duel tied at 2-2, Orcollo hacked out a thrilling 6-5 win over Chang to put the Filipinos on the hill, before Amit and Biado overcame Fu and Chou, 7-6, in the mixed 10-ball. Orcollo actually squandered a 5-2 advantage but held his nerve in the deciding 11th rack. It was the same story with Biado and Amit, nearly collapsing before steadying themselves.

The Filipino duo capitalized on a dry break from Fu to clean up the rack as the PH side set up a showdown with the Chinese composed of Li He-wen, Wu Jia-qing, Chu Bing-chia, women’s world 9-ball champion Han Yu and Chen Siming. Cedelf P. Tupas