Congressman Bongbong Marcos takes the opening break
Foreign players and guests got a glimpse of Filipino culture at the opening on Thursday of the five-day qualifying round of the 2nd World Ten Ball Championship at the StarBilliardsCenter in Quezon City.
Members of the Kalinangan Dance Company treated the crowd at the new state-of-the-art Star Billiards facility with their rendition of the national anthem and an assortment of folk dances and songs.
They even picked foreign partners in dancing the “tinikling”, to the delight of the guest of honor, Ilocos Norte representative Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
The Kalinangan Dance Company is composed of students from E. Rodriguez, Jr. High School and led by its adviser Dante Ballesteros.
Marcos pocketed the 10-ball on the ceremonial break to the delight of the crowd. He addressed a few words of welcome to the players and guests, and then declared: “Let the games begin!”
A total of 128 players joined the two qualifiers for the day, with foreign entries reaching triple digits. Leading the way were 22 Japanese, 14 Indonesians, 10 Chinese, 8 Taiwanese, and 8 Bruneians. There was also a sprinkling of European players, most notably two Frenchmen and one Albanian.
The biggest batch of entries came from the Philippines, with some 25 Filipinos vying for the two spots up for grabs. Former Asian Games gold medalists Gandy Valle and Antonio “Nickoy” Lining and Asian 9-Ball Tour leg winner Ramil “Bebeng” Gallego were among the Filipino hopefuls seeing action today.
The WTBC qualifying round will run for five days, Nov. 19 to 23. There will be two qualifying stages each day with the winners advancing to the main draw, which begins on Nov. 25 at the WorldTradeCenter in PasayCity.
WITH 118 players from over 40 countries earning spots and confirming their attendance, the 2nd World Ten Ball Championship on Nov.25-30 in Manila will gather the biggest assembly of the world’s top men pool players in competition.
“It’s going to be the toughest tournament of the year,” said Yen Makabenta, chairman of Raya Sports, the organizer of the WTBC. “All the top players are competing, every major pool powerhouse in the world has a contingent, and all national and regional champions will be here.”
To complete the main draw of 128 players, the remaining 10 spots will be contested by over 130 players in the WTBC qualifiers scheduled on Nov. 19-23 at the Star Billiards Center in Quezon City.
Unlike last year’s championship, the 2nd WTBC will be an all-male affair; it will miss the likes of Jasmin Ouschan of Austria, who made waves last year by beating some of the men in the field. Starting in June this year, women players now have their own world ten ball championship.
Leading the stellar cast in the only world men’s championship this year are reigning world 10-ball champion Darren Appleton of Great Britain, current world No.1 Ralf Souquet of Germany, and newly-crowned US Openchampion and leading 2009 moneywinner Mika Immonen of Finland. But they will have plenty of challengers from every point of the globe.
Pool powerhouse countries like Great Britain, Germany, the United States, Chinese-Taipei and host Philippines are fielding the most number of players in the competition, which carries the year’s biggest prize fund of $262,000.
Great Britain will strive to keep the world title with 10 players. Besides Appleton, the members of the British contingent are: 2007 world 9-ball champion Daryl Peach, Imran Majid, Scott Higgins, Craig Osborne, Karl Boyes, Jonni Fulcher, Ricardo Jones, Phil Burford and Chris Melling.
Souquet, 2008 world 8-ball champion and World Games gold medalist, leadsthe nine-man German contingent. The other players are: former world champions Thorsten Hohmann and Oliver Ortmann, Thomas Engert, Marko Vogel, Christoph Reintjes, Ralf Mund, Klaus Zobrekis and Benjamin Heimmerer.
The US contingent of nine players is bannered by former US Open and Predator 10-ball champion Shane Van Boening, former world champion Johnny Archer, Corey Deuel, Stevie Moore, Charlie Bryant, Shaun Wilkie, Charlie Williams, Shawn Putnam and Oscar Dominguez.
Chinese-Taipei, a major powerhouse in Asia, is represented by nine formidable players: former two-time world 9-Ball champion Chao Fong Pang, money-game king Yang Ching-Shun, two-time world junior champion Ko Pin-Yi, Chang Yu-Lung, Kuo Po-Cheng, Cheng Tsung-Hua, Lu Hui-Chan, Fu Che-Wei, and Wang Hung-Hsiang.
Host Philippines has, at this point, 11 player entries. They are led by Jeffrey de Luna (No. 7 in the world rankings), DemosthenesPulpul (No. 8), former world no. 1 Dennis Orcullo, former double world champion Warren Kiamco, and noted international campaigners Lee Van Corteza and Marlon Manalo.
The other Filipino players who have earned seats are: Warren Kiamco, Antonio Gabica, Allan Cuartero, and Jerico Banares.
Five Japanese players are entered in the main draw – Hayato Hijikata, Yukio Akakariyama, Toru Kuribayashi, Naoyuki Ooi and Satoshi Kawabata.
Korea has four players in Jeong Young Hwa, Kim Woong Dae, Choi Chul Mook and Ryu Seung Woo.
China is represented by three international campaigners: Fu Jian-bo, Li He-wen, and Liu Hai-tao.
Immonen will be joined by Markus Java in representing Finland. He is currently ranked third in the world.
Niels Feijen of the Netherlands, rated fourth in the world, will be joined by compatriots Nick van den Berg and Huidji See.
The other players who have secured spots in the main draw of the WTBC are:
Louis Condo and Ben Nunan (Australia), Mario He and Martin Kempter (Austria), Serge Das (Belgium), MB Alias (Brunei), Alain Martel, Raymond Cruz, Erik Hjorleifson, Adam Smith and Tyler Edey (Canada), Li Hewen, Fu Jianbo and Liu Haitao (China), Phil Stojanovic (Croatia), Roman Hybler (Czech Republic), Kasper Kristoffersen and Bahram Lofty (Denmark), Stephan Cohen and Vincent Facquet (France), Andreas Loukiadakis (Greece), Kenny Kwok (Hong Kong), I Alwi Alwi, Widi Harsoyo and Ricky Yang (Indonesia), Farhad Shahverdi (Iran), Fabio Petroni and Bruno Muratore (Italy), Ibrahim Bin Amir and Lee Poh Soon (Malaysia), Ignacio Chavez (Mexico), Vegar Kristiansen (Norway), Mateusz Sniegocki, Thomasz Kaplan, Mariusz Skoneczny and Radoslaw Babica (Poland), Basher Hussain, Abdulatef Fawal and Rashid Al Mari (Qatar), Konstantin Stepanov and Ruslan Chinakhov (Russia), Sandor Tot (Serbia), Tey Choon Kiat and Toh Lian Han (Singapore), Matjaz Erculj (Slovenia), Jason Theron and Alphonse Hoge (South Africa), David Alcaide and Rafael Guzman (Spain), Marcus Chamat (Sweden), Dimitri Jungo (Switzerland), Mehmet Cankurt and Ramazan Dincer (Turkey), Frailin Guanica and Jalal Youse (Venezuela) and Nguyen Anh Tuan (Vietnam).
Greece, Norway and Slovenia are joining the world championship for the first time.
Lee Van Corteza beat Carlo Biado 11-10 to top the World Ten Ball qualifier for Filipino players staged at the Star Billiards Center in Quezon City over the weekend.
With the victory, Corteza took one guaranteed WTBC spot and the cash prize of P20,000. Biado, for his part, got the second qualifying spot and the second place purse of P10,000.
The two will join 116 other players (including nine other Filipinos) who had earlier been named by the World Pool-Billiards Association (WPA) as having won berths in the main draw of the World Ten Ball Championship slated on November 25-30 at the World Trade Center in Pasay City .
Corteza and Biado emerged from a field of 75 Class A players who vied for the highly valued WTBC spots in the double-elimination qualifier.
The field was noteworthy for the inclusion of Filipino players from the BMPAP in the competition that is organized by the Billiards & Snooker Congress of the Philippines (BSCP) and Raya Sports. BSCP officials led by Sebastian Chua and Yen Makabenta opened the doors of the qualifier to all Filipino players following an agreement with top BMPAP officials (led by Perry Mariano) to set aside differences and forge a concerted effort to win the highly coveted World Ten Ball title for the country in the coming championship.
Corteza emerged undefeated in the tournament, after escaping from two hill-hill encounters. He bested Biado to take the hot seat, but Biado came back strong to challenge for the top prize after edging Antonio Lining in their semifinal match on the losers’side.
The final was a thriller throughout, with Biado all the way up to the final rack. He recorded impressive leads of 5-1, 7-3, 8-6, and 10-8, but could not finish off his opponent. Corteza kept fighting back, finally knotting the count at 10-all.
In the final rack, Corteza sank a ball on his break, but then faced a difficult long cross-table bank on the 1-ball. Saying that it was do-or-die, he took on the challenge and sank the ball. He then proceeded to run out the table, and was congratulated by his opponent.
Biado lived through practically the same experience in his semifinal match with Lining. The latter took the hill first in their see-saw match that saw Biado leading all the way.
In the 17th rack, with the score knotted at 8-all, Lining faltered on a safety shot that gave his opponent a slight opening. Biado coolly sank the object ball and then ran out to take the match.
The qualifier saw top veterans battling it out with upcoming young players who were eager to prove their worth. Three of the most impressive young players were Ricky Zerna, Marvin Tapia and Rocky Tullao, who showed that they have a bright future in the sport.
The final standings in the qualifier were as follows:
1st PlaceLee Van Corteza
2ndCarlo Biado
3rdAntonio Lining
4thRicky Zerna
5th-6thVictor Arpilleda
5th-6thRamil Gallego
7th-8thRocky Tullao
7th-8thJundel Mazon
Players who failed in their bid for the WTBC slots will have another chance to qualify via the 10 qualifiers scheduled on Nov. 19 to 23. This time around, they will contend with over 100 foreign players who have signed up to vie for the 10 remaining spots in the WTBC. #
A TOTAL of 17 players from North and South America will compete in the second World Ten Ball Championship at the World Trade Center in Pasay City on November 25-30.
Led by former US Open champion Shane Van Boening, Corey Deuel and Charlie Williams of the US , and Tyler Edey of Canada , they will vie for the coveted title of World Pool Champion and a total prize fund of $262,000.
Van Boening, also the winner of the Predator 10-Ball Championship two years ago, is the highest-rated American player. He is currently ranked fifth in the world.
Like Van Boening, Deuel, ranked No.12 in the world, was also a former US Open champion.
Williams, known as the Korean Dragon, is the head of Dragon Promotions, which was responsible in bringing the World Women’s Ten Ball Championship in Manila early this year. He is a perennial contender in major international pool tournaments.
Edey is Canada ’s best pool player. He is currently ranked No.29th in the world.
The 13 other players from North and South America earned their spots via their respective continental federations: 10 coming from the Billiards Congress of America and three from the Confederation Panamerica of Billiards.
The 10 BCA players are veteran campaigner and former world champion Johnny Archer, Oscar Dominguez, Shawn Putnam, Stevie Moore, Charlie Bryant and Shaun Wilkie of the US; and Alain Martel, Raymond Cruz, Erik Hjorleifson and Adam Smith of Canada.
Frailin Guanica and Jalal Youse of Venezuela and Ignacio Chavez of Mexico are the three players representing the CPB in this biggest and only men’s world pool championship this year.
From l to r: Mika Immonen, David Alcaide & Thorsten Hohmann
Determined to retain its hold on major world pool titles won last year, the European Pocket Billiards Federation (EPBF) is fielding 52 players from 21 member countries in the 2009 World Ten Ball Championship set at the WorldTradeCenter in Manila on November 25-30.
Gre Leenders, EPBF president and secretary-general of the World Pool-Billiard Association, formally announced the composition of the European delegation in an email sent to Raya Sports, organizer of the WTBC.
The European contingent is bannered by defending WTBC champion Darren Appleton (Great Britain), 2008 world 8-ball champion Ralf Souquet (Germany), 2007 world 9-ball champion Daryl Peach (GBR), Qatar Open champion Mika Immonen (Finland), China Open champion Thorsten Hohmann (Germany), and Portugal Predator Open champion David Alcaide (Spain).
Other notable members of the squad are: Marcus Chamat (Sweden), Niels Feijen (Netherlands), Stephan Cohen (France), Bruno Muratore (Italy), and Ruslan Chinakhov (Russia).
Great Britain and Germany, two major powers in the sport, have the most number of participants with 11 and 9 players respectively.
The countries sending players to the WTBC apart from Great Britain and Germany are: Finland, Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, Switzerland, Italy, Russia, Austria, France, Norway, Turkey, Spain, Serbia, Belgium, Denmark, Slovenia, Croatia, Greece, and the CzechRepublic.
Leenders said that the WTBC and the10-Ball format have become quite popular in Europe. “EPBF was able to fill all its spots. A European WTBC qualifier, which was held in September after the Euro Tour, attracted over 50 players who wanted to qualify,” he said.
The European players will battle for the WTBC title with players from the other continental federations: North America, South America, Africa, Oceania, and Asia.
The WTBC is the only world pool championship being held this year. Both the world 8-ball and 9-ball championships for 2009 have been cancelled.
