Manila, Philippines - The road to the Guinness 9-Ball Billiards Tour grand finals gets tougher for five Filipino campaigners when the tournament resumes in the final leg in Guangzhou, China from September 19 to 21 at the Garden Hotel.
The Guangzhou leg will be the toughest of the six-city Tour for the Filipinos since perennial contenders Chinese-Taipei will be fielding players composed of defending champion Chang Jung Lin, 2005 World Pool-Billiards Association titlist Wu Chia Ching, 2007 three-leg winner Yang Ching Shun and the dangerous Wang Hung Hsiang.
Chang, who topped the year’s first three legs, is already assured of the number one spot in the Tour’s Order of Merit while Yang and Wu are currently in second and third, respectively. Wang presently ranks fifth.
The Top 10 players in the overall Order of Merit after the Guangzhou leg will earn spots in the finals set in Jakarta, Indonesia from October 24 to 26.
Joven Bustamante is ranked highest among the five Filipinos at fourth in the Order of Merit while Alex Pagulayan jumped to sixth after winning the Singapore leg in July. While 2006 Doha Asian Games silver medalist Antonio Gabica placed seventh with WPA world no.1 Dennis Orcollo clinging on at 10th place.
Korea’s Ryu Seung Woo and Ibrahim Bin Amir of Malaysia rounded up the Top 10 after placing eighth and ninth respectively.
Hometown bets Fu Jian Bo and Li He Wen will make a final push for the Top 10 in the Guangzhou leg. The two are considered top contenders for a spot in the finals after occupying 11th and 12th places after four stages.
Helping Fu and Li make their final push are the hometown Chinese fans that came out in droves to support their athletes in last months Beijing Olympics.
Other players aiming for a spot in the finals are Indonesia’s Ricky Yang, Han Hao Xiang of Hong Kong, Thailand's Nitiwat Kajanasri and Sumit Talwar of India.
Players from Japan, Singapore and Vietnam are also expected to give their all in order to shore up their respective bids of earning valuable ranking points for the finals.
0 comments:
Post a Comment