Day 1 Results From the World 10 Ball Championships

Photo Courtesy of Stephan Doiron, Pictured from left to right, Francisco Bustamante, Stephan Doiron, Rodney Morris, Mika Immonen. 

By: Erik Hjorleifson

Day one is in the books at the World 10 Ball Championships in General Santos, Philippines and half of the groups have completed their first round of play. I wouldn't say that there were any blockbuster match-ups in the first round, such as past world champion vs past world champion but I will also say that there are very few soft draws in this tournament. There is a large contingent of players from Taiwan in attendance and most of the players that advanced through the qualifying stages are world class Filipino players that are being given the chance to prove themselves on this world stage. This year it seems that there are less Chinese players than usual and more Polish and Taiwanese players than usual. Considering the fact that all the participants in the tournament have qualified through their respective regions this tells me that these two countries have shown significant improvement in the past few years.

Here are some of the notable results from Day 1:

James Aranaz (PHL) 9 Rodney Morris (USA) 6
Dennis Orcollo 9 Oliver Mendenilla (PHL) 8
Ivica Putnik (CRO) 9 Albin Ouschan  (AUS) 6
Jerico Banares 9 (PHL) Mateusz Sniegocki (POL) 8
Wang Can (CHN) 9  Antonio Lining  8

Canada had a good showing on Day 1, John Morra was up against a very tough opponent in Jundel Mazon, one of the top players from the Philippines. After trailing 8-4 in the race to 9 format he made a nearly flawless comeback and pulled off a thrilling 9-8 victory. First time World Championship competitor Pod Shognosh also won 9-8 after leading 8-5 against a strong qualifier from the Phillipines, Pod made a tough 4-10 combination in the deciding game. Next up was Martin Daigle also playing a Filipino qualifier, this was a high quality match in which Daigle fell 9-7. He will be back today needing two victories to advance to the single knockout final 64 bracket. In the later seesion Jason Klatt put in a strong performance against his opponent from Singapore advancing with a 9-6 victory.  I will play my first match at 10 am Philippine time today and Stephan Doiron will also play his first match in the same time slot.

We will continue to cover the events from the World 10 Ball Championship, check out the live free stream here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAdtLuUx5y8&feature=youtu.be

Special thanks goes out to my sponsors for the event http://www.interadcorp.com/ check it out for all your web and mobile development needs and http://charlotteroom.com/  one of Toronto's finest upscale billiard rooms.