Quarter Final Results of the World Pool Championship

Alex Pagulayan (CAN)  11 - 10   Fong-pang Chao (TPE)  
Po-cheng Kuo (TPE)  11 – 10  Chin-Ching Kang (TPE)  

Marcus Chamat (SWE)  11 – 6  Marlon Manalo (PHI) 
Pei-wei Chang (TPE)  11 – 10  Johnny Archer (USA)  

Marcus Makes First Ever Semi

Sweden’s Marcus Chamat broke Filipino hearts today as he went past Marlon Manalo in their last eight match-up to make it through to the 2004 Taiwan World Pool Championship semi-finals for the first time in his career.

The 29 year-old from Borlange took the match 11 – 6 and now faces Pei wei Chang for a spot in Sunday night’s championship match.

Chamat, who reached the quarter finals of this competition in 2001 and 2002 and made the final 16 last year, came to Taipei in a rich vein of form, having won in Austria o­n the Euro Tour last month against the strongest possible field.

For Manalo, it was the end of a fairy tale run, having KO’d Yang, Bustamante and Reyes in successive rounds. He now returns home as the highest ranking Filipino in the tournament, which is some accolade.

The match belonged to the Swede, though, who put in his strongest showing yet and will enter his semi final game tonight full of confidence.

“I felt like it was my match; the balls were rolling my way and I was playing real good, he said

“I’d give my performance a seven or eight out of ten and I played better today than in any of my other games. I’m playing the best pool of my life right now and I’m really trying to set my level high.

“Manalo played good; he didn’t miss a ball but he played a couple of loose safeties. At 7 - 6 he let me see the edge of the 1 ball and that was the chance I needed.

“I’m really confident now and that win o­n the Euro Tour in Austria against a great field of 200 players was a real booster.”

In the main arena, it was domestic hope Pei Wei Chang who put in a career-best performance to hold off the last remaining US representative Johnny Archer and secure a semi-final play-off against Chamat.

Leading 10 – 7, the home-town boy had to endure some worrying moments sitting in his chair as Archer came back at him, winning three racks from the break to go to 10 – 10.

Crucially though, the Scorpion came up dry o­n the break and with the table at his mercy, the 25 year-old Chang held his nerve to run out for glory.

“At 10 – 10 I was just thinking, please no balls o­n the break, said Chang

“Once I got past the 1 and 2 balls, I knew I could run out. I slowed down my tempo, because Johnny is a slow player. Normally I play a bit quicker but I was very patient today.”

Pagulayan Through In Classic

In an absolutely superb game of pool, Canada’s Alex Pagulayan withstood the fierce o­nslaught of crowd favourite Fong Pang Chao to win an enthralling deciding rack and with it a place in the second semi-final of the 2004 Taiwan World Pool Championship.

It was a match where both players were at the top of their games, it came down to a safety battle in the final rack. Chao, who had run out the previous four racks to take the match to 10 – 10, was hooked o­n the 1 ball from the break.

In a bold ploy, Chao pushed out, leaving a snooker o­n the 1, tempting Pagulayan to play the jump shot. He refused and the Taiwanese star took it o­n himself but failed to make the pot. A safety battle ensued before Pagulayan made a table length bank to pocket the 1 ball and give himself a chance.

He gained great position o­n the 2 ball but ran into a cluster around the spot which left him needing a to make a very difficult kick shot o­n the 3 ball to continue.

Much to the dismay of the pro-Chao crowd, he executed it to perfection and left himself perfect o­n the pink 4. From there he composed himself and cleared the remainder of the table to win an epic match.

As the final 9 ball dropped, Pagulayan went wild, dancing around the table and shaking hands with the Pinoy contingent in the crowd.

At 10 – 5 ahead it looked in the bag for the Canadian as he took control of the table to build up the big lead.

Chao though was not finished. He took the next after a 2 / 8 carom gave him the initiative and then broke and ran the next four racks to bring the match to hill hill.

Pagulayan, though, after 20 minutes in his chair, made the run out of the tournament to take the match.

For Chao, who earns $10,000 for his efforts, it was a bitter disappointment as he really didn’t make a mistake. Being the superb sportsman he is, he spent the next hour signing autographs for his fans and posing for photographs.

Pagulayan moves o­n to a semi final match against Po Cheng Kuo which tales place o­n the second table later tonight.

The second quarter final was also a hill hill battle as Kuo won an all-Taiwanese battle against Chin Ching Kang.

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