 Korea's Rye Seung-woo |
THE KOREAN underdog pairing of Ryu Seung-woo and Kim Woong-dae dug deep to overturn a 5-2 deficit as they dumped out sixth seeds Vietnam at the PartyPoker.net World Cup of Pool at the Outland in Rotterdam.
Vietnam, consisting of Luong Chi-dung and Thanh Nam Nguyen, reached the semi-finals of this competition last year and we're expected to make light work of the inexperienced South Korean duo. Things didn't work out that way though as the Vietnamese lost control of the match in the middle stages and made too many mistakes in the closing games.
Vietnam took the opener but the Koreans leveled it after some poor positional play from their opponents. Rye missed a cross table bank in the third game and Vietnam negotiated a tricky run out to regain the lead.
Good safety from the Hanoi-based pairing forced positional errors from the Koreans and they cleared to increase their lead. They shared the next two racks to move the score to 4-2 in favour of the Vietnamese.
A run out from the break put the Vietnamese in a good position at 5-2 but Nguyen scratched in the next and the Koreans cleared to take the score to 5-3. That quickly became 5-4 as a 2/9 carom won the rack for the Koreans.
Nguyen missed the orange 5 in the next as he tried to cheat the pocket to gain maximum position and the Korean pair gained full advantage to level it at 5-5.
Now playing with renewed confidence, the Korean duo ran out from the break to take the lead for the first time and more of the same in the next rack took them into a 7-5 lead.
The final rack was the longest of the tournament as the balls were tied up awkwardly. Both sides had chances before Nguyen put his colleague into trouble and he missed the green 6.
With three balls left, it looked an easy out for the Koreans but Kim tried to force the 8 ball into the middle pocket and it smashed into the knuckle and flew into the corner pocket.
The cue ball skidded off three rails before landing perfectly on the 9 ball for a great South Korean victory.
EARLIER CANADA secured their place in the second round of the 2007 PartyPoker.net World Cup of Pool with a convincing 8-3 triumph over India.
The Canadian side, consisting of Edwin Montal and Alain Martel, were never in trouble against the Indian duo of Dharminder Singh Lilly and Manan Chandra.
In the second match of the second day at the Outland Nightclub in Rotterdam, Canada, the 11th seeds, showed they would be no pushovers with a fine display of safety play and potting finesse.
A Canadian team reached the last 16 of the 2006 competition in Newport, Wales and they qualified for the same stage here, where they will play either Vietnam or Korea on Friday afternoon.
The North Americans moved 2-0 ahead before a rare error from Martel, who is known throughout pool as the Dancing Bear, gave the Indians a chance.
Martel had missed a simple-looking 8-ball and the Asians did the rest to record their opening rack of the tournament.
At this time they only trailed 2-1 but had the break, which could have proved crucial in the winner's break format.
However, it was not to be for India as Canada regained control quickly and then won the next four racks to move 6-2 ahead with the game looked practically over.
India did manage to win one more rack but it was not enough as Canada deservedly sealed an 8-3 victory.
TEAM AUSTRIA, made up of the European No.18 Martin Kempter and 17 year-old Albin Ouschan, edged their way into the second round of the PartyPoker.net World Cup of Pool with a come-from-behind win over Australia.
The Australian pairing of Shaun Budd and Stuart Lawler only had themselves to blame as they enjoyed a 4-0 lead and then a 6-4 lead in the race to 8 game, taking place at the Outland Nightclub in Rotterdam.
Too many errors though let their opponents back in and the Austrians steadied themselves in the closing stages to record a fine win.
The Australians won a scrappy opener and increased their lead to 2-0 as they comfortably ran through the rack. Kempter failed to get out of a snooker in the third game and with ball in hand, the Australians made it 3-0.
A great break by Lawler in the next saw three balls drop and the team from down under completed an elementary run out to increase their lead.
They looked set for 5-0 before Lawler scratched into the middle pocket going from the 8 ball to the 9 and the Austrians recorded their first rack of the match.
They then took the next and completed a run out in the eighth game to reduce the deficit to 4-3. The Australians were certainly enjoying some good fortune and that helped them take the next to increase their lead to two racks.
Another fluke from the Australians gave them a chance in the next but a miss let the Austrians back in and they cleared to get to 5-4 down.
The Australians stopped the rot in the next as they got back to the table and ran out to increase their lead to 6-4. With the winner breaks format, Team Australia had everything in their favour to seal the win but Lawler once again scratched into the middle pocket to hand the rack to their opponents.
Austria ran out from the break in the next to level the score and reached the hill in the 13th game, which was touched by a little controversy. The Australians felt that Ouschan feathered the cue ball when pocketing the green 6 ball but the referee saw nothing and the TV replays showed that the shot was true. The final two balls were downed to get to 7-6 and into the lead for the first time in the match.
They sealed the win as they took the final game of the match for an excellent victory.
