There are always surprises at this stage of a tournament but perhaps the biggest one after four days at the World 10-Ball Championship is the survival of Chinese player Jin Hu Dang. He got in this championship as an alternate to the qualifiers by filling the slot of a player who did not make the trip to Manila and he has made the most of the opportunity. Tonight he beat Ching Shun Yang (TPE) to progress to the round of 32.
Tomorrow he faces another heavyweight in the form of Sweden's Marcus Chamat. Chamat beat Po Cheng Kuo 9-7 tonight. Our defending champion, Darren Appleton, is still in the fight as he bested Craig Osborne 9-3 to glide into the next round.
There are many interesting match-ups to be contested on Sunday. Warren Kiamco goes up against Thorsten Hohmann, Mika Immonen faces Marlon Manalo and David Alcaide, who recently won the Predator Ten Ball stop in Portugal, will go to war with former World Champion Fong Pang Chao.
The prize money now increases at a rapid rate with each win. The players will be battling their own nerves as well as their opponents and mistakes will be sorely punished. Two days to go yet and nobody wants to board an early flight.
