World Cup Of Pool: Japan Eliminates Holland

No nerves here for Toru Kuribayashi and Naoyuki Oi

By: Markus Noé

Today the World Cup of Pool entered its third day of play. The majority of the afternoon and evening sessions consisted of the final matches of the first round in this 32 player event. This first round has seen a few upsets which have included top contenders China, U.S.A and Canada all being eliminated in the first round. Other top seeded teams went into the day trying to avoid this trend.

The Greek pairing of Nick Ekonomopoulos and Alex Kazakis were up against Aloysius Yapp and Chan Keng Kwang of Singapore. At first glance you would have to put the experienced team from Greece as the favourites, however Kwang has been on this stage before and Yapp the 19 year old 2014 World Junior Champion is also very capable. It should also be mentioned that just last week at the World Championships in Qatar Yapp finished in the top 16.

This match was back and forth as you can see for yourself in the video above, which had a "guest" commentator Canadian #1 John Morra. This match went back and forth with Singapore coming back from 2-0 down to go ahead 3-2. From there the Greeks tied the match and exchanged racks to 5-5. In this rack Ekonomopoulos made one of several errors in this match by scratching off the 2 ball trying to get shape for the 3. Singapore was able to run out this rack to get 6-5 up in this race to seven.

Yapp coming with a big shot for Singapore. 

In the next rack Ekonomopoulos made another error, this time a positional one. leaving Kazakis a very tough back cut. However if anyone could make it, it was Kazakis who before this attempt had not missed a pot the entire match. That being sad he rattled the attempt but at first it appeared he was fortunate to leave it safe. However the young up and comer Yapp stepped up with the bridge and fired a full table cross corner setting the table up for the run out and the 7-5 mild upset.

Team Japan Toru Kuribayashi and Naoyuki Oi

One of the first matches in the second round featured Nick van den Berg and Niels Feijen of Holland vs Toru Kuribayashi and Naoyuki Oi of Japan. The team from Holland who came into this tournament as the number 3 seed were big favourites to win this entire event, especially after coming off two runner-up finishes in 2013 and 2014.

It was the Japanese team who got off to a good start going up 3-1, 5-3 and 6-4 before Holland was able to capitalize off a missed run out opportunity. They were able to run out this rack and break and run the next to tie the match at 6-6. It looked as if the comeback was theirs for the taking however Feijen scratched in the side leaving the table wide open

The two characters from Japan quickly began to run out this rack. After Oi made the 6 ball it was evident that Kuribayashi was going to try the 7-9 combination which was lined up straight to the corner pocket for the win. Before he could bend down to shoot the obvious shot Kuribayashi's partner Oi yelled out, " 9 Ball- we miss, Europe win! Come on Japan!" as the crowd erupted in laughter. The 9 Ball was made and team Japan moved onto the quarter-finals. You can watch the entire match in the link below.

Another notable win was England "A" vs Korea, the local favourites easily won this match 7-0. Listed below are the entire match results from today. Check back daily at www.cuesportnation.com for updates.


Thursday Results:

Thursday 24th afternoon
R1 Spain (11) 3-7 Czech Republic
R1 Finland (10) 7-4 Belgium
R1 Greece (7) 5-7 Singapore

Thursday 24th Evening:
R1 England B (15) 7-4 Sweden
R2 Holland (3) 6-7 Japan

R2 England A (1) 7-0 Korea (16)