DE LUNA BEATS CORTEZA IN GUINNESS WORLD SERIES OF POOL

FILIPINO power-breaker Jeffrey de Luna defeated Samuel of Indonesia, 6-3, and compatriot Lee Vann Corteza, 6-2, to advance in the next round of the 2010 Guinness World Series of Pool – 10Ball Challenge at the Mal Taman Anggrek Jakarta, Indonesia.

Also with two wins are countryman Alex Pagulayan who brought downed Joni Chandra of Indonesia, 6 – 0, and another Pinoy ace Victor Arpilleda, 6 – 2, and Jundel Mazon, winner over Yusuf Rianto, 6-3, and Yoni Rachmanto, 6-1, of Indonesia.

Carlo Biado, Dennis Orcullo and Antonio Lining already advance in the next round. Meanwhile, Germany’s Thorsten Hohmann kept his championship hopes alive after beating Indonesian bet M. Fadly, 6 – 3 in the loser’s bracket of the preliminary rounds.

Relegated to the loser’s side after suffering a lopsided defeat from another Indonesian M. Rahmansyah, 1 – 6, at the double eliminations opener, Hohmann needed to win the match against Fadly to remain in the prestigious tournament organized by ESPN STAR Sports.
Both competitors noticeably felt under pressure as Hohmann and Fadly notched unforced errors early on in the match with the German slightly edging out the Indonesian, 2 – 1.

However, a break and run-out at the 4th rack seemingly gave Hohmann a burst of much needed confidence as he pounced on the errors produced by a tentative Fadly to emerge first on the hill, 5 - 1.
Egged on by a supportive homecrowd, Fadly managed to pocket some difficult rail shots in the 7th and 8th frames to get back in contention, 3 – 5.

But just as things were looking up for the local bet, another miscue on the 5ball center pocket attempt saw the German back in the driver’s seat and clean up the table to seal the Indonesian’s fate.
With his win, Hohmann earned the right to challenge Chinese-Taipei’s boy wonder Ko Pin-Yi, who lost against American Shane Van Boening in their winner’s bracket meeting, 2 – 6, for a ticket to advance to the single knock out round.

Asked about how he felt about his performance in the tournament so far and what he thinks of his chances against Ko Pin-Yi Hohmann said: ” Honestly my game is a little rusty as I took some time away from competition. That’s why I think I’ve been having a hard time finding my rhythm. In this race to 6 double elimination format, mistakes really take its toll as you have to be on top of your game from the very beginning. Ko is a very tough competitor and I believe we’ll match up pretty well. Of course I’ll try my best and hopefully I can make it into the next round.”

BY: Marlon Bernardino