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The lanky Luat remained as the last man standing for the
Philippine team when he advanced to the round-of-16 even as Leonardo
"Dodong" Andam suffered a bitter defeat in the $250,000 World Pool Championships at the Cardiff International Arena in Luat scored a masterful 9-5 victory over Takeshi Okumura of Japan while Andam, the winner of the recent $50,000 Match of the Masters, tasted a bitter 9-8 defeat to Chin Sung Yang of Taipei in their round-of-32 matches. All eyes will be focused on Luat, the 1996 Camel 9-ball champion, as he takes on Andam's conqueror in a race-to-11 affair for a spot in the quarterfinal round. The 42-year-old Luat, a native of Pampanga, is now the
country's only hope in the tournament offering $60,000 after Puyat Sports teammates Reyes, the top seed and defending champion,
6th-ranked Bustamante and Warren Kiamco bombed out in the Alex Pagulayan, another Filipino but representing Canada, defeated 13th ranked teammate Alain Martel, 9-4, and will go up against Ismael Perez of Mexico. Reyes raced to an early 8-2 lead but succumbed to the power of snooker legend Steve Davis of England, 9-8, while Bustamante, after leading 5-0, fell to Niels Feyen of the Netherlands, 9-6. Kiamco lost to Shin Young-Park of Korea, 9-5. Big-talking American Earl "The Pearl" Strickland, now the favorite after the loss of Reyes, made his way through to the last 16 but not after getting a scare from unheralded Kevin Smith of Britain. Smith raced to a 4-0 lead before Strickland got his game together to take the lead at 5-4 before Smith came back again. At one point, Strickland argued with referee Michaela Tabb in his belief that Smith fouled when using his jump cue. The crowd then jumped on Strickland's back and he started having an argument with them well but things calmed down and the American ran out a 9-7 winner. "He got going early and I just bided my time. Today these kids are learning the game fast. It used to be that you played for 10 or 15 years before you knew the ropes but now its about five," said Strickland. "The business with the crowd didn't bother me. This is a great tournament and I want everybody to enjoy all the players here. They've come from all over the world. The competition here is so tough because when I won the World Championship before there were only a few countries represented. This has got to be the strongest field I've ever played against." Steve Knight posted the most impressive victory of the day, a 9-0 whitewashing of Japanese Kunihiko Takahashi. "There's not much you can do when somebody plays like that against you. I knew he was a class player and when guys like that are on their game you can spend most of the match sitting down," said Knight. Akikumo Toshikawa shocked American No. 1 Johnny "The Scorpion" Archer, 9-5, and will go up against Strickland for a seat in the quarters. European No. 1 Ralf Souquet was also booted out of contention by Reyes' conqueror Davis, 9-6, and veteran Kim Davenport of the United States was defeated by Corey Deuel, 9-6. It was all even for Toshikawa ang Archer, participants in the recent $50,000 Match of the Masters, in the early parts of the match. The 34-year-old Japanese from Osaka racked up four straight wins from a 5-5 standoff after crucial misses by Archer to arrange a clash with the flamboyant Strickland. "It sucks! At 2-2, I broke, didn't make a ball and he won four games to go 6-2. At 6-5 down I missed a simple 9-ball. How I don't know but that was the last shot I got," said Archer. "Toshikawa played pretty well, got out of all the safeties I made and in the end, it was too tough to come back." "The format is difficult here. Single elimination race to 9 leaves you no defense. With big pockets its easy to run out and unless you get the momentum going early you lose." (SNS) REQUEST FOR A COMPLIMENTARY COPY Refresh
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