Chinese Taipei thrashed Finland 7-1 to underline their 2023 World Cup of Pool hopes at Pazo de Feiras e Congresos de Lugo, Spain in partnership with The Asociación Gallega de Billar Pool (AGP), Xunta de Galicia and EIDF Solar live on Sky Sports in the UK and Ireland, DAZN in Spain, the USA, Italy, and Brazil, Viaplay in Scandinavia, the Baltics and Poland and broadcasters worldwide.
Netherlands 7-4 Hong Kong, China
Chinese Taipei 7-1 Finland
Poland 7-2 Serbia
Chinese Taipei: Ko Pin Yi & Ko Ping Chung｜©Taka G. Wu/Matchroom Multi Sport
The Ko brothers Pin Yi and Ping Chung set out against former winners in Petri Makkonen and Mika Immonen with the intention of adding another star next to their own country’s accolades having last lifted the title eight years ago in 2015.
Finland got off to the worst of starts with no table time until the third rack and even then it didn’t go to plan for them as Chinese Taipei got back to establish a 3-0 advantage.
At 5-1 down, Finland got into trouble from the break, and from there, they found themselves 6-1 down after they fell to the three foul rule, compounded with Immonen scratching after a safety that left him searching for any sight on the two ball. A routine finish in the following rack gave Pin Yi and Ping Chung a win to set up an enticing tie with the Netherlands in the second round.
Netherlands: Niels Feijen & Marc Bijsterbosch｜©Taka G. Wu/Matchroom Multi Sport
The Netherlands were made to work for their second-round spot overcoming Hong Kong, China’s duo of Lo Ho Sum and Robbie Capito 7-4. Marc Bijsterbosch fresh off the back of a run to a maiden final at the Spanish Open last week and three-time finalist Niels Feijen found themselves 3-1 down early on with their dynamic opposition taking the fight to them.
Bijsterbosch in the seventh rack at 3-3 played a poor safety on the two which allowed the Hong Kong, China side in to capitalise and establish an advantage again at 4-3 but that would be the last time the pair would be leading as the Netherland’s turned on the style to make sure it wouldn’t be an early exit.
If ever a game was turned on a sixpence this would’ve been it with a Capito scratch from the break in the eigth bringing the Dutch to the table and they wasted no time in turning proceedings around with no let up at 4-4 and soon 5-4 up. A tricky table layout in the following rack was small fish as they reached the hill with their third rack on the spin and soon it was game over at 7-4 for a safe passage in the end for Feijen and Bijsterbosch.
Poland: Wiktor Zielinski & Konrad Juszczyszyn｜©Taka G. Wu/Matchroom Multi Sport
Poland has a new scotch double pairing for this year’s competition of Wiktor Zielinski and Konrad Juszczyszyn and they wasted no time in getting used to each other’s game as they took hold of Serbia’s Aleksa Pecelj and Lazar Kostic.
At 1-1, inexperience showed for Pecelj and Kostic with an errant seven ball bringing the Poles to the table and they pounced on the error to lead at 2-1 and then 3-1. In the sixth rack, Serbia nearly fell to the three-foul rule but Poland had an easy 4-9 combo to move ahead at 4-2. Kostic missed a purple five and Poland took hold further at 5-2 and then 6-2 before clearing up for 7-2 with little room for breath.
Evening Match Odds
Germany 1/7 – New Zealand 4/1
Hungary 1/1 – Bosnia & Herzegovina 8/11
Spain B 8/13 – Saudi Arabia 6/5
The 2023 World Cup of Pool will be played alongside the 31st Galician Team Pool Billiards Championship, which will bring together more than 1,000 players in the Pazo de Ferias y Congresos de Lugo, where more than 40 tables will be in action. The participants in this tournament considered the biggest in Europe, will compete for the regional titles and the prizes arranged by the Galician Association of Pool Billiards.
TICKETS
Additional tickets for the 2023 World Cup of Pool are now on sale with allocations selling out within 24 hours. Buy tickets here from only €10.
©Taka G. Wu/Matchroom Multi Sport
2023 雙打世界盃 – 中華台北輕取荷蘭 取得開門紅
2023 撞球雙打世界盃昨天夜裡結束首輪第二比賽日的六場比賽。香港與中華台北兩隊先後出戰，結果大相徑庭。香港失誤連連，不敵狀態並不穩定的荷蘭，晚些時候出戰的柯氏兄弟則以一場 7-1 的大勝，為中華台北收穫開門紅。
柯氏兄弟 (柯秉逸與柯秉中) 聯手出戰，迎戰老搭檔 Mika Immonen 和 Petri Makkonen 組成的芬蘭隊。芬蘭隊顯然無法給兄弟二人製造任何威脅。中華台北隊 5-0 夢幻開局，最終 7-1 輕鬆過關。
香港迎戰荷蘭，雙方都是搭檔多年的老隊友。香港隊 (盧浩琛 & Robbie Capito) 年輕富有活力，荷蘭隊 (Niels Feijen & Marc Bijsterbosch) 則更為老成。這一區別在比賽中得到體現。儘管荷蘭隊進攻端磕磕絆絆，香港隊卻多次在解球上犯下相同的錯誤，導致先輸後贏。最終香港隊 4-7 遺憾一輪遊。
同樣輕鬆取勝的還有波蘭隊 (Wiktor Zielinski and Konrad Juszczyszyn)；對手塞爾維亞隊 (Aleksa Pecelj and Lazar Kostic) 在開局錯失領先機會，波蘭隊笑納大禮並最終直落 4局，取得 7-2 大捷。值得一提的是，波蘭近幾年來都是歐洲最強的勢力之一，非常有望成為本屆世界杯攪局者。