Just as he did to Jasmin Ouschan in the World Ten Ball Championship last year, Demosthenes Pulpul ended Kelly Fisher's magical run in the Philippine Open Pool Championship with a convincing 9-2 victory.
Both the Filipino and the Irish woman were undefeated up to their match that opened Day Four of the competition.
Pulpul, who placed fourth in the WTBC, raced to a 3-1 lead, which he never relinquished. By the time Fisher won her second rack the score was already 6-2.
After Fisher's failed break on the 9th rack, Pulpul ran out and did not give her another chance.
In other matches of the undefeated, Hui-Chan Lu crushed Rudi Susanto 9-5; Ricky Yang beat Pei-Wei Chang 9-6; and Radoslaw Babica surprised Marcus Chamat with a decisive 9-2 whitewashing.
Until his meeting with Lu, Susanto had been another major surprise in the tournament, as he took down a number of top opponents, including Filipino Marlon Manalo and American Shane Van Boening. But against Lu, the skills and experience of the Taiwanese proved too much to handle. Lu won running away by the score of 9-5.
The other Indonesian in the last 16, Ricky Yang, was more successful in his match against another Taiwanese, Pei-Wei Chang, a former world 9-ball runner-up. Yang paced the match throughout, and never allowed Chang to knot the count or take the lead. When the smoke cleared, he was victor by the score of 9-6.
The Babica-Chamat match was striking for its surprising lopsidedness. Both players were playing well and had gone unscathed for three rounds.
Babica was impressive because of his successive wins over Karen Corr (9-6), Martin Kemptner (9-7), and Darren Appleton (9-6). For his part, Chamat beat Len Chenman (9-7), Po-Cheng Kuo (9-5), and Antonio Gabica (9-2).
In their match, however, it was Babica all the way.
