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Dennis
Orcollo and Roberto Gomez bounced back from the one-loss
side by posting huge victories to barge into the
knockout stage of the 2008 World 8-Ball Championship
late Monday at the Amir Billiards Club in Fujairah City,
the United Arab Emirates.
Orcollo,
the current world’s top-ranked cue artist and last
year’s runner-up, saw his quest of finally becoming a
world champion on the brink after absorbing an 8-6 loss
to Englishman Mark Gray. But he immediately recovered
with an 8-2 trashing of New Zealand’s Matt Edwards to
secure a slot to the round-of-32 of the eight-day event.
Gomez,
the 2007 World Pool Championship runner-up, also
rebounded from his second-round defeat to reigning World
10-Ball titlist Shane Van Boening by blanking Canadian
Francis Crevier, 8-0, to also join fellow Billiards
Managers and Players Association of the Philippines bets
led by defending champion Ronnie Alcano and Warren
Kiamco in the knockout phase.
“The
breaks went against me, that’s why I lost [against
Gray]. But after that, I told myself I don’t want to go
home yet and blow this opportunity to become a world
champion, so I poured it all,” said the 29-year-old
stalwart of the star-studded Bugsy Promotions of
businessman Perry Mariano.
Middle
East-based Filipino cue artist Alan Cuartero also made
it to the Last 32 through the losers’ side. He lost his
opening match against Malaysian Ibrahim bin Amir, 8-4,
before scoring back-to-back wins over local bet Issa Al
Boloshi, 8-1, and compatriot Jeff de Luna, 8-5.
The
Philippines sent six of its 10 entries to the next stage
of the tournament. They are Alcano, Kiamco, Orcollo,
Gomez, Cuartero and Elvis Calasang.
Besides
de Luna, the other Filipinos who failed to advance were
Antonio Gabica, Joven Bustamante and Israel Rota.
After
winning his opening match against Chris Melling, Gabica
succumbed to a couple of 8-5 losses to Ruslan Chinahov
of Russia and reigning World 9-Ball king Darryl Peach of
England, while Bustamante dropped his first two outings
against top European players Marcus Chamat of Sweden
(8-5) and Darren Appleton of England (8-2).
Rota,
also a Middle East-based player, lost to Gray, 8-4, won
against Muhammed al-Hosani, 8-4, before bowing to former
world champion Oliver Ortmann, 8-1.
The
other marquee players in the Last 32 are former world
champions Wu Chia-ching of Chinese-Taipei, Peach, Van
Boening and Ralf Souquet, as well as world No. 2 Niels
Feijen of the Netherlands, Fu Jianbo of China, Chamat
and lone female entry Jasmin Ouschan of Austria. |
