Billiard: De Luna advances, Corteza loses at Guinness World Series

MANILA, July 31 (PNA) -- Filipino power-breaker Jeffrey de Luna defeated Samuel of Indonesia, 6-3, and compatriot Lee Vann Corteza, 6-2, to advance to the next round of the 2010 Guinness World Series of Pool -- the 10-Ball Challenge at the Mal Taman Anggrek Jakarta in Indonesia.

Also with two wins are countryman Alex Pagulayan who brought down Joni Chandra of Indonesia, 6–0, and another Pinoy ace Victor Arpilleda, 6–2, and Jundel Mazon, winner over Yusuf Rianto, 6-3, and Yoni Rachmanto, 6-1, of Indonesia.

Carlo Biado, Dennis Orcollo and Antonio Lining have already advanced to the next round.

Meanwhile, Germany’s Thorsten Hohmann kept his championship hopes alive after beating Indonesian bet M. Fadly, 6–3, in the loser’s bracket of the preliminary rounds.

Relegated to the loser’s side after suffering a lopsided defeat from another Indonesian, M. Rahmansyah, 1–6, at the double eliminations opener, Hohmann needed to win the match against Fadly to remain in the prestigious tournament organized by ESPN STAR Sports.

Both competitors noticeably felt under pressure as Hohmann and Fadly notched unforced errors early on in the match with the German slightly edging out the Indonesian, 2–1.

However, a break and run-out at the 4th rack seemingly gave Hohmann a burst of much-needed confidence as he pounced on the errors produced by a tentative Fadly to emerge first on the hill, 5-1.

Egged on by a supportive home crowd, Fadly managed to pocket some difficult rail shots in the 7th and 8th frames to get back in contention, 3–5.

With his win, Hohmann earned the right to challenge Chinese-Taipei’s boy wonder Ko Pin-Yi, who lost against American Shane Van Boening in their winner’s bracket meeting, 2–6, for a ticket to advance to the single knock out round. (PNA)
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