In a true back and forth battle, Team Asia (consisting of Efren Reyes, Francisco Bustamante, Pin Yi Ko, Hui Chan Lu and Teo Chee Soon) edged out Team Europe (Ralf Souquet, Darren Appleton, Nick Van Den Berg, Imran Majid and Ruslan Chinakhov) by the narrowest of margins to win the Asia vs Europe Challenge Match.
Day one of this three day affair was scotch doubles matches all day long and although Team Europe held an early 2-1 lead, Team Asia won the last two matches to close the day with a 3-2 lead.
Team Asia extended that lead to two matches at the start of day two when Hui Chan Lu defeated Imran Majid 5-4. The teams split the next two matches, giving Team Asia a 5-3 lead with two matches left on Day two, but Van Den Berg's 5-3 win over Reyes and Appleton's 5-4 win over Pin Yi Ko left both teams tied at five with one day left to play.
Team Europe started Day three on the right path as Souquet blanked Reyes 5-0 to give Team Europe a 6-5 lead, but Hui Chan Lu then defeated Darren Appleton 5-2 to knot the score at 6-6. Majid upended Teo Chee Soon 5-3 to move Team Europe to the hill, but Team Asia quickly joined them there at 7-7 when Ko defeated Chinakhov.
The deciding match came down to Francisco Bustamante vs Nick Van Den Berg. Van Den Berg took an early 2-1 lead in this match, but a break and run by Bustamante tied the score at 2-2 and gave him the momentum he needed to win the next three racks for the 5-2 win.
Team Asia collected $27,000 in prize money, while Team Europe settled for $13,000 in runner up prize money.
Scores:
Day 1
Ko & Lu 5-1 Van Den Berg & Chinakhov
Appleton & Majid 5-4 Reyes and Soon
Chinakhov & Souquet 5-2 Lu & Bustamante
Ko & Soon 5-4 Van Den Berg and Majid
Reyes & Bustamante 5-4 Appleton & Souquet
Day 2
Lu 5-4 Majid
Souquet 5-1 Bustamante
Soon 5-2 Chinakhov
Van Den Berg 5-3 Reyes
Appleton 5-4 Ko
Day 3
Souquet 5-0 Reyes
Lu 5-2 Appleton
Majid 5-3 Soon
Ko 5-3 Chinakhov
Bustamante 5-2 Van Den Berg
