Darren Appleton
The Philippine squad suffered unexpected massive losses at the quarterfinal rounds of the 2010 Guinness World Pool Championships when two highly decorated pool masters, Antonio Lining and Dennis Orcullo bowed out of contention in the tournament after failing to hurdle their round of 16 assignments.
Lining, currently ranked 8th in the world by the WPA was roadblocked by Japan's top seed Naoyuki Oi, 6 – 8 while recently crowned World Pool Masters champion Orcullo was unable to outwit the smart play of England's Darren Appleton, 3 – 8. Both Filipinos were unbeaten going into final 16 rounds.
It was actually Lining who put the pressure on early in the match versus Oi, running out the 1st rack and capitalizing on an 8ball corner pocket miss in the 4th and a failed 7ball cut in the 7th by the Japanese to lead 5 – 2.
But an error from the Filipino from a rushed approach to a straight forward 4ball pot in the next rack saw Oi back to the table and chain three consecutive racks to have the score at three racks a-piece.
The shift of momentum proved to be costly for Lining as he has unable to find his rhythm again, allowing his Japanese opponent clear run-outs and finally close out the match.
Said Lining: “My game simply just wasn't there today. My stroke felt tight and at the same time he (Oi) was in top form. This is a disappointing loss for me because I really wanted to win here. But that's just the breaks of the game. Sometimes you have ‘it' and sometimes you don't.'
Over at the adjacent table things were even worse for Orcullo who was having an impossible time finding a chink in Appleton's near perfect game. It was a complete turn-around of events for the Filipino former world no. 1 who enjoyed a fairly unhindered cruise towards the single elimination round.
Showing extreme control of the table with impeccably placed safety shots, Appleton took five unanswered racks off a blazing start go to stun and frustrate his Filipino rival. In the middle rounds, it became clearer that the Englishman was the better prepared - man taking full control of the match and allowing the Filipino only three racks under his name before finally forcing a visibly frustrated Orcullo to concede at the 11th rack.
Joining Oi and Appleton in the quarterfinal round is a powerhouse cast of pool aces. Here are the results from the morning sessions:
Ralf Souquet (PHI) defeated Carlo Biado (PHI) 8 – 7
Jundel Mazon (PHI) defeated Antonio Gabica (PHI) 8 – 3
Chang Jung-Lin (TPE) defeated Stevie Moore (USA) 8 – 2
Ronato Alcano (PHI) defeated Jeffrey De Luna (PHI) 8 – 2
Irsal Nasution (INA) defeated Alex Pagulayan (PHI) 8 – 4
Ricky Yang (INA) defeated Adam Smith (CAN) 8 – 2
Pool fans can catch the telecast of the 2010 Guinness World Series of Pool – 10Ball challenge, broadcast LIVE on STAR Sports with fifteen hours of exhilarating competition from July 30 to August 01, 2010:
Sun, Aug 01, 2010 from 11.00-15.30 (HKT) Semis and Finals
Please visit www.guinnessworldpool.com and www.facebook/guinnessindonesia for more information
