Ralf Souquet, Thorsten Hohmann, Haitao Liu, Antonio Lining in semis of Philippine Open Pool 2011
Ralf Souquet and Thorsten Hohmann from Germany, Haitao Liu from China and local favourite, Antonio Lining have qualified for the semi-finals of the Philippine Open Pool Championship 2011.
The semi-finals will begin on Monday, 11 April, 2011 at the World Trade Centre in Manila.
Souquet and Liu made their entry into the semi-finals beating Thorsten Hohmann and Antonio Lining respectively.
The German ace, Souquet defeated Darren Appleton in a close contest by 9-8 in the round-of-16 pre-quarterfinal match to book his spot against compatriot and friend Thorsten Hohmann in the quarters.
The two-time pool champion, Souquet outplayed his friend Hohmann in their quarter-final encounter with a score line of 9-2 and qualified for the semi-final stage.
The former world number one, Souquet clinched five straight games convincingly beating top players of the tournament. He has recovered from shoulder and back injuries he had been suffering recently.
On the other hand, Chinese ace Liu surged into the semi-final after subduing the Filipino veteran Antonio Lining in a tough match by 9-8.
The Chinese was 6-8 down when he bounced back and took advantage of the mistakes made by Lining. The Filipino missed the number 5 at the jaws of the corner pocket giving Liu a chance to sweep the table in the 15th rack. The Chinese ace made no
mistake and clinched the rack to reduce Lining’s lead to 7-8.
Liu fought back brilliantly and grabbed back-to-back racks to relegate the Filipino to the losing side of the bracket. Both Souquet and Liu are the only undefeated players of the tournament so far.
The other big news came in the second session from the Filipino Carlo Biado, as he beat the recently crowned World 8-Ball champion, Dennis Orcollo by 9-7 to enter the quarter-final stage against the German, Thorsten Hohmann.
Hohmann defeated the 27-year-old Biado in a thrilling quarter-final by 9-8 and joined Souquet and Liu from China.
Philippine’s veteran Antonio Lining faced Darren Appleton from the Great Britain in their quarter-final clash in the evening session. The 2002 Asian Games gold medallist Lining played tremendously well in the match and grabbed the semi-final spot after beating
the Briton 9-6.
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