Poland's Wojciech Szewczyk
Round 2
Poland 8-6 Holland
Italy 8-1 Switzerland
UNHERALDED POLISH pair Karol Skowerski & Wojciech Szewczyk crashed the quarter-finals of the 2012 PartyPoker.net World Cup of Pool as they outlasted a pedigree Dutch side of Nick Van den Berg and Huidji See, winning 8-6 at Robinson’s Place in Manila.
Pool has been on the rise in Poland over the past five years or so and in addition to these two there are plenty of other top drawer shooters waiting in the wings.
It was all quality in the opening half of the match as the Poles opened up a surprise 3-1 lead including a tidy break and run. The Polish squad was set to go ahead 4-1, having outfoxed the Dutch on a push out and safety battle but with just three balls left on the table Szewczyk missed an easy 6 ball handing a gift to Holland who made it 3-2.
Both teams played well and at 5-5, the match was anyone’s. A poor positional shot from the Poles let the Dutch in and they took the lead and looked favourites. Poland took the next though as See missed a 6 ball and the match was looking increasingly scrappy.
In the end, it was a limp to the finish line and it was Poland who got their first as the Dutch looked all at sea.
Commented Polish Team Manager Grzegorz Kędzierski, “This is our fourth time in the quarter-finals so we hope we can get our first medal. The team played bad today, not like they can. They started good but both teams didn’t play that well.
“The boys are looking forward to tomorrow. There will be a lot of people in the arena, it will be a big occasion and let’s hope they can do it for Poland!”
The 2012 PartyPoker.net World Cup of Pool runs from Tuesday September 4 to Sunday, September 9 at Robinson’s Place, Ermita, Manila. Once again the total prize fund is US$250,000 with $60,000 going to the eventual champions. The superb venue with plentiful balconies offers superb views of the playing arena, and crowds are in the thousands rather than hundreds.
The final round of 16 match was a 50/50 toss-up between Italy and Switzerland. Both had enjoyed decent wins in the first round, particularly the Swiss who dumped Philippines A out of the competition.
Dimitri Jungo and Ronni Regli, though were never in it as the duo of Fabio Petroni and Bruno Muratore did an Italian job on them.
Too many errors from the Swiss pair gave the Italians all the chances they were looking for and their game, whilst not ‘A’ standard was certainly good enough as they came with the shots when it mattered. They now face Poland for a place on the podium.
Muratore said, ”We had a really good start, with a few break and run outs. The game is so much easier when you break good. I think the break is 60-70% of this game.
"We had a lot of good situations in this match. It was the perfect match for us."
Petroni added, "The atmosphere here is incredible. This tournament is really unique. We usually play and nobody is watching but here there is a big crowd and television cameras.
“It's not good for the heart. What's easy in training is really difficult here. Look at the Philippines team they lost already. Holland lost. In this tournament anything can happen."
The 2012 PARTYPOKER.NET World Cup of Pool is sponsored by PartyPoker.net, the world's leading online poker school. Cloth is supplied by Iwan Simonis, Super Aramith balls by Saluc, tables by Diamond Billiards and the Official Cue is Predator.
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