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At
the first 8-Ball World Championships organized by the WPA in Fujairah, one
of the 7 United Emirates, 64 players competed for the title. Because of a
UPA ranking tournament held at the same time in New York, no US players were
present. This is why more than a third of all competitors were European.
In the qualifying stage, 4 players competed round robin in races to 7 in 16
groups and the first two players of each group were qualified for the final
round of 32 players in a KO bracket.
The travel to the venue was already different, since The Deutsche Lufthansa
experienced a worldwide computer breakdown. So, everything was done manually
and many flights were delayed. This is why I had changed my flight on short
notice on „Emirates“, but this lead to the unpleasant situation that my
luggage was not on board. Only the third day after arriving in Fujairah, my
queues and my normal luggage arrived in Dubai airport. The tournament
organizers had exempted me for this reason from playing on the first day of
the official competition.
In my first match, I played A. Saeed from the United Arabic Emirates and I
won 7-2. The same evening, I played my second match against I. Putnik (CRO),
and I also won 7-4. In spite of these two victories, I had to win at least 5
racks against M. Lothander from Finland the next day to qualify for the
final round. In a high level match, we both did play without any mistakes
until 6-6. After a bad position on the second last half ball, I missed the
last 8 ball and lost 6-7. However, I won the group, second was the player
from Finland and Putnik had to travel home, in spite of his two won matches.
Except T. Schober, who had
been best German player at the 9-Ball WC, all remaining 6 German players
entered the final round. Here, O. Ortmann lost to E. Reyes (3-10) and S.
Santl to A. Pagulayan (8-10). I could book a 10-0 against S. Abdullah (UAE),
and the frustrated Arabic player surrendered at 9-0. In the fourth round, I
had to face the Magician. After trailing 0-2, I could take the lead at 3-2,
but then lost the lead again to trail 3-6. At 4-6, I could not control the
cue ball upon the break and had to give the table back to Reyes. The player
from the Philippines underlined his top position with en excellent game and
entered the quarter-finals with an undisputed 10-6. Two more German top
players also lost in the fourth round. The Champion of Champions and World
Pool Masters winner T. Engert did not stand a chance against M. Manalo (PHI)
who played an almost perfect match to win 10-5. T. Hohmann missed many
opportunities against R. Babica from Poland and lost surprisingly 9-10. Last
German player was my new team mate from Emden, M. Schmidt, who defeated D.
Peach from Great Britain 10-7. But the quarter-finals were also the end of
his WC ambitions – he lost to a great Manalo 5-10 and finished 5th –
even the best German player could not prevent the Philippine dominance.
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Arena
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The
results of the quarter-finals:
M. Manalo (PHI) – M. Schmidt (GER) 10-5
A.
Pagulayan (CAN / PHI)- R. Babica (POL) 10-3
F. Bustamante (PHI) – N. Feijen (NED) 10-3
E. Reyes (PHI) – M. Chamat (SWE)
10-5
In
the first semi-final between Manalo and Pagulayan, both players
committed many mistakes and finally, Manalo won 10-8. In the second
match, the clash of the giants, only Bustamante made some unusual
mistakes. Reyes shot out even impossible racks and played as if he
came from another planet. He fully deserved to win 10-4 and to enter
the final of the first 8-Ball WC.
But here, the underdog had the much better start and after two mistakes by
the Magician, took a 4-0 lead. But then Efren „Bata“ Reyes took
control over the match and played until the 8-4 lead. But another
two mistakes by the Magician and the match became tight again, since
Manalo came back to 7-8. A black break made Reyes come back to the
table and he extended his lead to 10-7. His opponent could win one
more rack, but then the most probably best player of the world shot
himself to the title. Reyes won 11-8, as so often during these last
years, the first edition of a tournament and may carry the WPA
8-Ball crown for one year.
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Diks – Lely - Ruijsink
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