Mika Immonen had a heartbreaking day today. Trailing 7-0 to Tomoo Takano he put on a fantastic display of cueing power to win 7 of the next 8 racks and trail 8-7. He was on his way to tying the match when he missed a straight-in five ball to surrender the table for the last time and lose 9-7 to end his campaign in the event. At this point there are no easy matches. But Yu Lun Chang dominated his match over Imran Ibrahim 9-1 nonetheless. Most of the rest of the matches were closer. Johnny Archer got past Haitao Liu 9-6 and Chris Melling defeated Marcus Chamat by the same score. Manuel Pereira had a nail-biter against Antonio G.bica that found him winning 9-8 while Yukio Akakariyama destroyed Ibrahim Bin Amir 9-2.
Ever-strong Sascha-Andrej Tege beat Artem Koshovoj 9-5 and Darren Appleton slid by Ping Chun Ko 9-8 while Jason Klatt required two and a half hours to overcome Che Wei Fu 9-5. Thomas Engert was another player who had to wonder what happened today. He led Alok Kumar 6-3 only to lose 9-7. His countryman, Oliver Ortmann, looked very comfortable as he knocked out Naoyuki Oi 9-6. Tony Drago wasted no time defeating David Alcaide 9-6 and Ricky Yang suffocated Jeff De Luna 9-3. Huidje See is quickly becoming one of the guys to watch in this tournament as he played near-perfect pool to beat Youseff Jalal 9-3 and Pin-Yi Ko eased past James Delahunty 9-4. To finish the second round of the day Jin-Hu Dang beat Carlo Dalmatin 9-6.
The third round found Dennis Orcullo defeating Mario Morra 9-4 and Karl Boyes besting Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz 9-3. But many of the matches were much closer. Jiaqing Wu outlasted Ming Wing 9-7 and Shane Van Boening got past Vicenancio Tanio by the same score. Daryl Peach narrowly got by Omaral Shaheeme 9-8. Carlo Biado was neck and neck with Roberto Gomez until he caught a gear late in the match to win 9-6. Ronni Alcano had little trouble with Demosthenes Pulpul as he won that one 9-2 and Lo Lii Wen won over Jonas Magpantay 9-6.
The first match to reach the finish line in the final round of the day was Lee Van Corteza winning 9-5 over Lu Hui Chan. Li He Wen finished the day well with a 9-3 win over Luong Chi Dung and Jundel Mazon won over Jericho Banares 9-5. Jianbo Fu continues to look strong as he beat Po-Cheng Kuo 9-7 and Shun Yong Park won over Ivica Putnik 9-3. Nick Van Den Berg kept things well under control with his 9-4 thrashing of Muhammad Zulfikri while Marvin Tapia and Chieh Liu Chen kept it close throughout in a match that rarely saw more than a game between them. This one went to double-hill with Chen prevailing to take the nerve-wracking win 9-8. Finally, Hao Xiang Han ended our day with his 9-4 victory over Stephan Cohen
Live scoring will resume on Saturday at noon at www.wpa-pool.com and the live streaming may be watched at www.rayasports.com
