Above: The World Ten Ball presscon
DEFENDING champion Darren Appleton of Great Britain believes a win in the 2nd World Ten Ball Championship (WTBC) will be sweeter the second time around.
“I’m not saying that last year was not great. I just think that the competition this year will be up by another level,” he said.
World’s top ranked player Ralf Souquet of Germany goes to the extreme.
“This could be the best-ever field in world championship history,” said Souquet, who is gunning for pool’s version of the Triple Crown. He is the 1996 world champion in 9-ball and the reigning world champ in 8-ball.
Souquet and Appleton are the top two seeds in the WTBC, which unfolds with the group stages on Wednesday at the World Trade Center in Manila. Souquet will face Thomasz Kaplan of Poland in Group A while Appleton will play Tey Choon Kiat of Singapore in Group B in the first round.
The 128 players in the main draw are divided into 16 groups headed by the top seeds based on the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPBA) ranking.
In order, they are Souquet, Appleton, Niels Feijen of the Netherlands, Mika Immonen of Finland, Shane Van Boening of the United States, Marcus Chamat of Sweden, Jeffrey De Luna, Demosthenes Pulpul, Daryl Peach of Great Britain, Jerico Banares, Ko Pin-yi of Chinese Taipei, Marlon Manalo, Charlie Williams of the United States, Radoslaw Babica of Poland and Lu Hui-chan and Fu Che-wei of Chinese Taipei.
The first phase of the tournament will be double elimination with the four survivors from each group advancing to the next round. With only eight players per group, two wins are enough to move on.
The Last 64 will be single elimination. Loser goes home.
Chances are there will be a lot of Filipinos in the knockout round. There are 20 of them in the group stage – Dennis Orcollo and Steve Villamil in Group A, Allan Cuartero in Group C, Emil Martinez in Group F, De Luna and Jomar De Ocampo in Group G, Pulpul and Ronnie Alcano in Group H, Lee Vann Corteza in Group I, Banares and Jundel Mazon in Group J, Antonio Gabica in Group K, Manalo and Ramil Gallego in Group L, Roberto Gomez in Group M, Warren Kiamco and Michael Feliciano in Group N, Carlo Biado and Antonio Lining in Group O, and Victor Arpilleda in Group P.
Pulpul, a semifinalist and the best Filipino finisher in last year’s WTBC, will face tough opposition to make it to the knockout round.
The luck of the draw, or his lack of it, pits him against former world 9-ball champ and many-time US Open winner Johnny Archer of the United States in the first round of Group H.
If he wins, he will be up against the winner between two-time world champion Ronnie Alcano and Chinese Dang Jin-hu. If he loses, he will face the loser between Alcano and Dang in a knockout match.
Pulpul’s group also includes 2007 World Pool Championship semifinalist Karl Boyes of Great Britain and Taiwanese Cheng Tsung-Hua.
De Luna, the top ranked Filipino in the field at seventh, will have an easier time as he goes up against Mehmet Cankurt of Turkey in the first round of Group G.
His group also includes De Ocampo, who will first meet Wang Hung-Hsiang of Chinese Taipei.
Orcullo, arguably the best player in the world without a major tournament title, opens his bid against Villamil in Group A. A win will set him up for a potential showdown against Souquet.
There will also be an all-Filipino affair in the opening round of Group J with Banares taking on Mazon.
Manalo, another marquee player without a major title, tackles American Stevie Moore in the first round of Group L. Waiting for him in the next round is either former world champion Thorsten Hohmann of Germany or Ryu Seung Woo of Korea.
Gallego is on the other half of the draw in Group L. His first assignment will be Chang Yu-Lung of Chinese Taipei.
The other first round matches involving Filipinos pit Cuartero against Naoyuki Ooi of Japan in Group C, Martinez against David Alcaide of Spain in Group F, Corteza against Vegar Kristiansen of Norway in Group I, Gabica against Ralf Mund of Germany in Group K, Gomez against Alphonse Hoge of South Africa in Group M, Kiamco against Phil Burford of Great Britain and Feliciano against Rafael Guzman of Spain in Group N, Lining against Lu Hui-chan of Chinese Taipei and Biado against Liu Haitao of China in Group O, and Arpilleda against Kasper Kristoffersen of Denmark in Group P.
While the locals have the numbers, the visitors have the titles.
All four of the world championships in pool belong to European players. Peach holds the world 9-ball title while Feijen is the current world straight pool champ. And Appleton and Souquet own the world 10-ball and 8-ball crowns, respectively.
But none of them is hotter than Immonen.
The player called the “Iceman” because of his cool demeanor recently won his second straight US Open title. He also ruled two other international tournaments this year.
Immonen may prove too much for Basher Hussain of Qatar in the opening round of Group D.
Peach is heavily favored against Lee Poh Soon of Malaysia in the opener of Group I. Feijen, however, is expected to have his hands full against former snooker ace Scott Higgins of Great Britain in Group C.
Also fancied to advance are usual suspects Kuo Po-cheng of Chinese Taipei from Group A, Nick van den Berg of the Netherlands from Group B, Chang Pei-Wei of Chinese Taipei from Group C, Oliver Ortmann of Germany from Group D, Yang Ching-Shun of Chinese Taipei from Group I, Ricky Yang of Indonesia from Group M, Corey Deuel of the United States from Group N, and Thomas Engert of Germany from Group P.
