TOURNAMENT favourites the Philippines moved into the quarter-finals of the PartyPoker.net World Cup of Pool as they moved past an error-prone Russian side at the Outland in Rotterdam.
Francisco Bustamante and Dennis Orcollo looked good in patches but the Russian duo of Ruslan Chinakhov and Konstantin Stepanov made far too many mistakes for opposition of this calibre, particularly the 16 year-old Chinakhov who looked a different player from his Round 1 performance.
The Philippines took the opener but the Russians levelled it in the second before an illegal break in the third allowed the Philippines to move ahead.
The measured run out from the off gave the Philippines a 3-1 lead and then a monster break from Bustamante came up dry to let Russia back to the table. They made a poor safety attempt leaving a 1/9 combo which Orcollo missed.
With most of the balls on the rails, the Russians came unstuck as Stepanov stuck the cue ball to the 9 going from 6 to 7 and Chinakhov missed the pot with hampered cueing. Bustamante played a great safety and although Russia's escape was good, it left the 7 ball on.
The Philippines made it but Bustamante left his team mate a nasty thin cut on the 9 and although Orcollo bagged it, the cue ball eventually scratched into the centre pocket and gift the rack to Russia, and move the score to 2-3.
However, the Philippines got to the table to re-establish a two rack lead at 4-2. With the Brunswick Gold Crown breaking extremely tough, there was another dry break. The Russians though missed a ball though and Bustamante and Orcollo ran out for 5-2.
An illegal break from the Philippines saw the table returned to the Russians. A poor shot from Chinakhov allowed the Pinoy duo to clear but Orcollo missed a bank shot on the 6 ball.
Chinakhov blundered again, as he missed the brown 7 into the top pocket. Busta missed a table length bank on the same ball, before Stepanov took his turn to miss. Finally it was Orcollo who dropped it and the score moved onto 6-2.
There was further dry break action in the next but an out-of-sorts Chinakhov missed the 1 ball. Both sides had chances before Orcollo played a bad safety on the six ball to give the Russians a chance and they took it for 6-3.
The last two racks were easier going for the Philippines as they took full advantage to secure an 8-3 victory. They will now meet Japan on Saturday evening in the quarter-finals.
ENGLAND set up a mouth-watering quarter-final clash with Germany as reigning World Champion Daryl Peach and European number one Mark Gray defeated Canada 8-4 and will now play the German duo of Ralf Souquet and Thomas Engert in what promises to be the match of the tournament so far.
Canada made a bright start by taking the first two racks but England instantly fought back by winning the next two.
The English then took the lead at 3-2 as they worked their way through the table, the highlight being an exquisite positional shot from the 6 on the top rail to the 7 down table.
A legal break from Gray kept England at the table and the pair looked very smooth as they. Peach didn't manage to get the requisite three balls past the headstring so control of the table passed back to the Canadians.
Edey messed up on a safety but Gray missed the 4 ball into the centre pocket and that gave the Canadians a great chance to take the rack which they did to go 3-4.
A dry break from Canada prompted a push out from England but Edey snookered himself on the 2 ball. Peach and Gray fought for position throughout but managed to clear to go 5-3.
A twitch from Montal saw the 1 ball stay out of the centre pocket but it was not pottable for the English. They exchanged visits before Gray kicked out of a snooker to combo the 9 ball up table and back down again, into the corner pocket and give them a 6-3 lead.
Gray missed a long pot on the 2 ball on the next and the Canadians gave themselves a real shot in the arm as they reduced the deficit to 6-4.
Montal played a bad shot on the 2 ball to hand the table back to England and a superb shot on the same ball from Gray set up the run out and they succeeded to get to the hill at 7-4.
With awkward cueing, Gray missed the 1 ball. The rack looked a formality for Canada but Edey missed a shocking 7 ball but Gray missed a long cut on the 8 ball with victory in their grasp.
Montal missed a slow bank on the 8 and that left it on for Daryl Peach who made it to set up an 8-4 victory for England.
JAPAN ended the hopes of the home nation Holland as the B side of Roy Gerards and Gijs van Helmond, who won a local qualifying event to claim their place in the competition, departed the tournament at the hands of Japan.
Earlier the Dutch A team of Niels Feijen and Nick Van Den Berg were KO'd in the first round by local rivals Belgium.
Japan's Satoshi Kawabata and Naoyuki Oi led 4-0 and, despite a fight back from the hosts, won 8-5 and now meet the Philippines on Saturday.
Holland made a poor start as they fell 3-0 down in the earlier stages. An illegal break from Japan in the first rack gave Holland a chance but van Helmond missed the 1-ball and it was 1-0.
The Asian pairing doubled their lead despite another illegal break as van Helmond also missed, this time on the 8-ball, in what was becoming a nervous start from the inexperienced Dutch players.
Holland were spending a lot of time in their chairs as it soon became 3-0 before Japan ran out the fourth with the ever-smiling team of Oi and Kawabata laughing and joking their way to a 4-0 lead.
The Dutch finally got another chance in the fifth as Oi missed the brown 7 and the hosts, to the delight of their fans, got on the scoreboard.
Holland won the next as well after a foul from Japan but the momentum switched back to the Asians as teenager Gerards, 19, hit his break shot too hard and the cue ball flew off the table.
Oi's attempted jump shot though, ended in disaster and Holland were grateful of the opportunity to win their third rack in a row.
Japan won the next for 5-3, Holland B claimed the ninth for 5-4 but Japan restored their two rack advantage by winning the 10th.
However, Holland B were staying in touch and the deficit was back down to one after a double kiss on the green six left Holland with a chance that they took.
An undercut six from Gerards that stayed out of the pocket helped Japan move to the hill at 7-5 as they closed in on a place in the quarter-finals.
Gerards then missed the same green six in the next rack and that proved to be their last shot in the competition as Japan sealed the victory.
