DE LUNA ADVANCE; GABICA, MANALO, PULPUL FALLS IN WORLD 9-BALL CHINA OPEN

JEFFREY “The Bull” de Luna scored back-to-back wins on Friday to join WPA World No.1 Ralf “Kaiser” Souquet of Germany in the knock-out stage the  2009 (JUS) World 9-Ball China Pudong Tang Cheng Open gets underway at the Pudong Yuanshen Gymnasium in Shanghai, China.

De Luna, the 2007 Manny Pacquiao International 9-ball Open champion clobbered Mateusz Sniegocki of Poland, 11-7, then subdued He Wen Li of China, 11-4, in Group 3.

Souquet, who beat Ronato Alcano in this year’s World 8-ball finals in Fujairah turned back Yukio Akakariyama of Japan, 11-3, and Shu Chun Zang of China, 11-5, respectively in Group 1.

Antonio “Ga-Ga” Gabica, who earlier beat Chen Cong of China, 11-3, in Group 1 but relegated to the loser’s brackets bowing to Che Wei-Fu of Chinese-Taipei, 11-6.
The Lapu-Lapu City native Gabica failed to advance in the money round losing to Akakariyama, 9-11, from an 6-all deadlock.

2008 World Ten Ball Semi-Finalists Demosthenes “Plong-Plong” Pulpul, playing under the banner of Cebuano sportsman Paul Monera Magadan of Magi Group and MPC Glass and Alluminum trading GM Mark Monera Magadan also start to packed his things suffered two consecutive loss to Jinhu Dang of China, 11-6, and current two-time WPA World Junior Champion Ko Pin-Yi of Chinese, Taipei, 11-7, in Group 8.

Last Filipino entry Marlon “Marvelous” Manalo bowed to two-time Asian Games 9-ball gold winner Yang Ching-Shun of Chinese-Taipei, 11-6, in Group 5  then stuns Louis Condo of Australia, 11-5, in the one-loss side but yielded to Kuo Bin-Won of Chinese-Taipei, 11-10, for the last 32 seat.

The format calls they will play a double round robin for the race-to-eleven in the last 64 (Stage 2), while single knock-out affair will be employ in the last 32 in the US $40,000 championship prize with the runner-up will bring home $20,000 while the losing-semi-finalists gets $5,500 each. The prizes up to the last 32 according to the organizing group.

The Filipino pool wizards would like to thank the Billiards and Snooker Congress of the Philippines (BSCP) headed by its president Sebastian Chua and chairman Yen Makabenta and Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) chairman Harry Angping for their undying support regarding the China Open.

BY: MARLON BERNARDINO.