Feijen, Wu and Engert All Through At World Pool Masters

Saturday, June 9, 2007

wu_chia-ching_04 Niels Feijen produced a stunning fight back to defeat Imran Majid and move into the last eight of the 2007 PartyPoker.net World Pool Masters.

Feijen, who was backed by a large home crowd at the Hotel Zuiderduin, Egmond aan Zee, trailed 3-0 in the early stages of the match but recovered to win 8-5.

"I started like a granny," admitted Feijen. "Imran then let me off the hook so I could've been 4-1 down. The big swing came when he missed a seven-ball and I played really well from the middle to the end.

"I have been struggling with my pace the whole week so this was a big relief for me. Let's keep it going."

Majid looked in control in the early stages as he moved around the table comfortably but the match turned at four racks all when Imran had no shot on the opening ball and pushed out. He failed to make his intentions plain to referee Michaela Tabb and resulted in ball-in-hand for Feijen, who grabbed the opportunity to take the lead for the first time at 5-4.

Looking confident, Feijen coasted through the next to increase his lead with his English opponent against it. Majid though, held himself together to run out the next but the momentum was with Feijen.

Looking a different player from his early tentative endeavours, he completed another easy run out to get to the hill at 7-5.

Feijen got to the table in the next but could do nothing with the situation and Majid was forced to play safe. The Dutchman though, took on a great table length bank on the 5 ball which proved to be a match winner as it set up the run out for a tremendous come-from-behind victory for Feijen.

In the next first round match, Taiwan’s former double World Champion Wu Chia-ching fired out a warning shot as he made light work of Canadian Tyler Edey, winning 8-1.

In the final match of the afternoon, Thomas Engert (Germany) and Malta’s Tony Drago completed their third Masters first round match and this time it was Engert, the 2004 champion, who got the better of it winning 8-4.

It was a tight match until Engert got the better of the safety exchanges to close out Drago and secure a quarter final berth.

Full Results:

  • Niels Feijen (Ned) 8 – 6 Imran Majid (Eng)
  • Wu Chia-ching (TPE) 8 – 1 Tyler Edey (CAN)
  • Thomas Engert (GER) 8 - 4 Tony Drago (MLT)

Pinoy Alcano Aware of Taiwanese Wu in World Pool Masters

Friday, June 8, 2007

ronnie_alcano_11 World Champion Ronato Alcano believes Chia-ching Wu is his biggest threat in the 2007 PartyPoker.net World Pool Masters. The Paranaque based Alcano reached the pinnacle of the sport in November when he defeated German Ralf Souquet in the final of the 2006 World Pool Championships. That victory elevated 34-year-old Alcano to legend status in his pool-mad home country as he became an overnight celebrity.

One of the other benefits of winning the world title has seen him be selected as one of 16 players in this year's Masters, which begins Friday at the Hotel Zuiderduin, Egmond aan Zee, Holland. It will be Alcano's debut in the competition and he will be aiming to maintain his good form and collect the $20,000 top prize.

Alcano, bested compatriot Dennis Orcollo in the finals of the World 8-ball in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates last February to follow the foot step of Chia-ching Wu and countryman Efren "Bata" Reyes, the former double world champion (WPA 9-ball and WPA 8-ball).

He faces Italian Fabio Petroni in the opening round on Friday night and, if successful, will then meet either Nick van den Berg (Holland) or female star Jasmin Ouschan (Austria) in the quarter-finals.

However, if he reaches the semi-finals he could meet 2005 World Champion Chia-ching Wu ( Taiwan) in what would be a mouth-watering encounter. "This is a hard tournament to win because there are a lot of good players," said Alcano. "It is hard to say if I will be the winner as there are too many top players but I will try my best and maybe I will get lucky. I think Chia-ching Wu is a very good player and will be difficult to beat."

Alcano and Chia-ching Wu will both be getting some match practice ahead of the main tournament as they played in the Challenge the Champions last Thursday. This knockout tournament features a number of professional players competing against local club players and will be an interesting indication of who is in form and who is not.

In other marquee matches in the first round of World Pool Masters: Naoyuki Oi of Japan vs Oliver Ortmann of Germany; Li He-wen of China vs Pat Holtz of Scotland; Imran Majid of England vs Niels Feijen of the Netherlands; Wu Chia-ching of Chinese-Taipei vs Tyler Edey of Canada and Tony Drago of Malta vs Thomas Engert of Germany.