Two of the unseeded sides upset the applecart as they made their way into the second round of the 2018 World Cup of Pool against fancied opposition as three further round one matches took place at the Luwan Arena, Huangpu District in Shanghai.
The $250,000 tournament originated in 2006 and has since moved around the world before touching down in Shanghai. The World Cup features 32 pairs from across the globe including two from host nation China. Running from 15th to 20th May, the event is on live TV in over 100 countries around the world.
The Australian pair of James Delahunty and Justin Sajich became the first Australian team to win a match at the World Cup of Pool as they progressed at the expense of the fancied Russian pairing of Fedor Gorst and Ruslan Chinakhov.
A delighted Sajich said, “It was tough out there, we were nervous but we fought hard, kept it together and we managed to pull it off. I think we knew we were the underdogs, although we wouldn’t have admitted it to each other. We will go back to the pool hall before the next round. We have been practicing six hours a day since we got here.”
Delahunty was equally thrilled, “We knew it wouldn’t be an easy match and we had to play as well as we could and I think we performed pretty well. We didn’t miss many pots and that’s what we needed to do. We weren’t looking too far ahead in the draw but we will have to play well in the next round – it is on us again, if we play well then we give ourselves the best chance to win.”
Team Australian: James Delahunty and Justin Sajich
Earlier, underdogs Sweden (Christian Sparrenloev-Fisher and Tomas Larsson) put in an equally fine performance to bring down the fancied Japanese duo of Naoyuki Oi and Toru Kuribayashi. The score was 7-5.
Fischer said, “We are really happy, of course. We knew we needed to play well to win it and we played okay. We know the Spanish players well, they are friends to us and we know we can beat them, we just need to play our game and anything can happen.”
Finally, in the opening match, Finland looked a bit shaky but still had too much for the Malaysian duo of Muhammad Almie and Darryl Chia.
Mika Immonen: “It wasn’t our best performance but we got through. We played better at the start of the match even though we were settling in. Then we gave them a little window, but they didn’t take it.
“We are looking forward to playing USA. We played them in the quarter-finals last year and we lost, but we are confident we can improve from this match. We will need to improve against USA because they are a formidable team. We are looking forward to that and avenging the loss from last year.”
Team Finland – Mika Immonen & Petri Makkonen
9球世界盃雙打賽首輪比賽繼續進行，16強最後四個席位也將揭曉答案。下午時段，北歐鄰居芬蘭和瑞典攜手晉級，而來自大洋洲的澳洲隊則創造歷史，爆冷戰勝俄羅斯隊，首次殺入16強。
下午場的比賽，芬蘭隊率先出場。他們仍舊是多年的老搭檔Mika Immonen和Petri Makkonen聯袂出戰，對手馬來西亞名2名年輕選手，此役目標力拼對手。不過馬來西亞隊粗糙的打法很難給老道的芬蘭隊壓力。他們只在中盤階段扳回兩局，並挽救了一個賽點，其余時間失誤頻頻。芬蘭隊7-3輕鬆晉級16強。
日本隊與瑞典隊的交鋒也是大家關注的焦點，並不是因為雙方實力多麽雄厚，而是因為日本隊擁有以搞怪聞名的大井直幸。去年直布羅陀九球大師賽，賽後採訪中，聽不太懂英語的大井直幸即興表演了神曲ppap，他的手勢也正好代表了他的名字OI，從而成為花式撞球著名“網紅”。
Team Sweden – Christian Sparrenloev-Fisher and Tomas Larsson
日本對手瑞典隊並不算歐洲傳統豪強，不過一開局卻成功破掉了日本的開球局。隨後的比賽，雙方交替領先直至3-3，此時，瑞典隊突然發力，連續上演絕妙好球，並令人意想不到的率先聽牌。第十局，瑞典隊簡單局面離奇失誤，日本隊揀回一局。大難不死的日本隊接著一局大摸，將比分扳為5-6。關鍵階段，栗林達防守失誤，瑞典隊複雜局面下完成精彩清台，Larsson更是上演漂亮的開倫打擊，拒絕被逆轉的同時，7-5將第二種子球隊送回了家。
俄羅斯隊來勢洶洶，陣容由名將Ruslan Chinahov和天才球手Fedor Gorst組成。前者大賽經驗豐富，後者則已拿過歐青賽14.1項目冠軍等多項好成績。實力上看，俄羅斯隊明顯比對手澳洲高出一截。不過勝衝短局制的比賽還是頗具懸念，趁著俄羅斯隊立足未穩，澳洲隊2-1領先進入休息時間。俄羅斯隊打起精神將比分反超為4-2之後，澳洲也掀起了一波連摸的攻勢，再次將比分超出並直接拿到賽點。隨著俄羅斯隊最後的反撲未果，澳洲隊奇跡般的連拿5局7-4淘汰對手，爆出大冷的同時，史上首次晉級16強！
Play continues on Thursday evening with the final first round match and two second round matches.
Rnd 1
China A 中國A2隊 (2) v Estonia 愛沙尼亞
Rnd 2
Austria 奧地利 v Poland 波蘭
Scotland 蘇格蘭 v Holland 荷蘭
2018 World Cup of Pool sponsored by Iwan Simonis who supply the Official Cloth; the Official Balls are Super Aramith by Saluc, and Predator is the Official Cue of the event.
CN/TOP147