Wang Can and Wu Jia Qing
Team China’s return to the World Cup of Pool was a successful one coming from 3-0 down to defeat Syria 7-3 at Pazo de Feiras e Congresos de Lugo, Spain in partnership with The Asociación Gallega de Billar Pool (AGP), Xunta de Galicia and EIDF Solar live on Sky Sports in the UK and Ireland, DAZN in Spain, the USA, Italy, and Brazil, Viaplay in Scandinavia, the Baltics and Poland and broadcasters worldwide.
China led by Wu Jia Qing and Wang Can struggled to get a grip of proceedings early on against Syria’s Mohammad Soufi and Zaid Al-Shariti with the debutants making their opposition sweat at 3-0 down.
Soufi and Al-Shariti’s attacking style was troublesome as much entertaining and a miss on the four at 3-0 up proved to be costly as China stepped up to deliver vital blows to keep them in it back at 3-2 before 3-3 after a brief safety exchange where Syria struggled to cope with the hooks left on the table by Wu and Wang.
At 4-3 down, Al-Shariti scratched on a tricky jump to bring China up who soon made it 5-3 and they’d won five on the spin. Mistakes were part of Syria’s downfall but China tapped into their counterpart’s struggles to leave tricky lies with no real sight of the object ball when necessary. Wu and Wang stepped up to finish off the final two racks and bag a victory that sees the three-time former winners meet Singapore tomorrow afternoon.
In the second match of the session, Vietnam’s 17-year wait for their next win in the World Cup of Pool was ended after overcoming Kuwait in a hotly contested match-up where Abdullah Alyousef and Bader Alawadi threatened to spoil the Duong Quoc Hoang and Nguyen Anh Tuan efforts. Vietnam was 5-0 up before Kuwait had eyes on some meaningful table time. Tuan fired a wild five ball which brought Kuwait in to take their first rack at 5-1 and then a second for 5-2. A costly error from the Vietnaise on what should have been an easy 1-5 combo let Kuwait in for 5-3 and the contest was well and truly alive out of nowhere.
At 5-3 down, Alyousef left a two ball hanging in the jaws of the pocket which allowed Vietnam in to reach the hill before closing out an important victory in their chapter of Nineball to meet Great Britain tomorrow evening.
Japan’s Naoyuki Oi and Masato Yoshioka reunited in hopes of a safe passage to the next stage against Italy’s Francesco Candela and Daniele Corrieri with the pair together for a second year in a row. Oi and Yoshioka set the early pace for a 2-0 lead and Corrieri’s error on the two in the third allowed them in for a 3-0 advantage. It wasn’t going well for Italy and they lost another rack for 4-0 and Japan were coasting.
In the fifth, it was a dog fest where eventually Italy came out on top after some back and forth for 4-1 down. At 6-2 to Japan, Italy threatened the come back again and they pulled it to 6-4 with Oi and Yoshioka looking the lesser likely to come through but in the end Japan did prove too much.
Thursday, 29 June (eve) Match Odds
USA 1/9 – 5/1 South Korea
Albania 8/11 – 1/1 Poland
Austria 1/3 – 9/4 Bosnia
The 2023 World Cup of Pool continues from 7pm tonight local time live on Sky Sports in the UK and Ireland with those in Spain, Italy, and the USA able to watch on DAZN. Fans in Scandinavia, Baltics, Netherlands, and Poland can watch on Viaplay with further broadcasters around the world. See where to watch in your country here with more broadcasters to be announced. Action will also be live on Matchroom.Live.
The 2023 World Cup of Pool will be played alongside the 31st Galician Team Pool Billiards Championship, which will bring together more than 1,000 players in the Pazo de Ferias y Congresos de Lugo, where more than 40 tables will be in action. The participants in this tournament considered the biggest in Europe, will compete for the regional titles and the prizes arranged by the Galician Association of Pool Billiards.
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