Day 5 – Final 64 Wu Chia-Ching vs Fabio Petroni

It’s beginning to feel like a World Championship. The Araneta Coliseum’s filled out a little more today compared to yesterday. I guess pool fans in Manila like to see the wheat separated from the chaff before spending their money to come in. It’s not cheap to come watch the world’s best in action. Tickets start from US$3.50 to US$18 up to the final 16; then to get a roaming pass, you’d need to pay US$33 and US$44 for the final two days. A season pass would set a fan back US$175. Considering I had a decent lunch for US$1.50, ringside tickets are certainly the reserve of the well-heeled. I’m glad to have a media pass, with a meal stub attached.

2005 World Champion Wu Chia-Ching is leading Fabulous Fabio Petroni 2-0. It’s early goings, and rack 3 has been punctuated by cheers from the adjacent TV table where Roberto the Pinoy Superman Gomez has just dismantled Dutchman Alex Lely 9-1. Wikipedia lists Lely, a two-time European straight pool champion aka The Plague from the Hague as a former professional pool player who retired from the sport on 8 November 2006. Obviously The Plague is still in retirement mode.

Fab Fabio is a tough customer. He’s one of the more camera-friendly players and has been hanging about the world scene for a while. He’s pulled back a rack but is unable to make it two in a row. Wu is back at the table and working the rack confidently. He plays a 6-7 combo to perfection, then runs out the rack. It’s 3-1 now.

The Wu Chia-Ching of 2007 does not resemble the one that ran stunned the pool world when he ran off five racks in a row to beat his baby-faced compatriot Kuo Po-Cheng 17-16 in the 2005 World Pool final in Kaohsiung. For one, he is a heck of a lot leaner… the boy (he’s only 18, by the way) lost 27kg after enduring much teasing from his schoolmates. Clearly, they have little respect for World Champions in Taiwan! But hey, Wu looks good. He still carries a poker face when sitting down, and he does look like an anxious teenager at times. He should be anxious, Petroni’s run off two racks to even the score.

Rack seven sees Petroni missing and Wu is up in a flash. The uncertainty is gone, clearly he looks a lot better standing up and working the table than he does sitting down. This is one player who knows how to win, and you don’t win tournaments sitting down. How’s that for an overused cliche?

There’s a lot of talk about Taiwanese players being like robots – that they a dispassionate and well.. boring. Well, they aren’t. What we have here is a language and cultural abyss. Televised pool, on the international level, is almost exclusively an English domain. Taiwanese players speak little or no English, and I honestly don’t see why they need to. They are not out to please the crowd, really, their primary duty is to win games. As players, they are a close-knit bunch, have plenty of character, and trust me, they can be animated. But Chinese culture is such that the people are less expressive, almost nondescript in public. Find them a decent bilingual interviewer, one who speaks their language and who can connect with them, and trust me, they will open up.

I know that because I’ve had the honour of sitting down with these players and their families and friends for dinner in Kaohsiung. I’ll describe the dinner another time but that evening, we dined with Chao Fong-Pang, Wu Chia-Ching, Yang Ching-Shun, Chang Jung-Lin, Wu Yu-Lun and Lu Hui-Chan. I sat at the veteran’s table, with Chao and Yang. At the other table, the youngsters were having fun. It was good to see the players at ease and being themselves.

I have also been on occasion the guy who helps the media to interview and translate for the Taiwanese players. What strikes me most about Wu is how composed and mature he is when answering questions. He’s not tentative at all, he quite obviously has a deep understanding and respect for the game, and he is not a sore loser. He makes no excuses and analyses his game clearly. He’s had enough experience now in front of the camera to know what to say, and how to say it. And he know this game is about how to make sure you win more than you lose. Give me a cool Taiwanese over a crazy American anytime!

After taking a 7-3 lead, Wu’s allowed Fabio to close it back to 7-5. Kuo Po-Cheng has despatched local player Ramil Gallego 10-5 and swings by the media room to chat with the Taiwanese media who have chosen to turn up in force today. Lu Hui-Chan is also through to the final 32, knocking out another European name player Swede Marcus Chamat 10-6. Pity that Ko Ping-Yi could not get the job done. One of Taiwan’s famed 18-year-old trio, Ko lost a closely-fought match 8-10 to Serbia’s Goran Mladenovich. Ko, Wu, and Wu Yu-Lun (three-time and reigning World Junior Champion) represent the future of Taiwanese pool. Their diverse road to pool stardom is a story for another day.

It’s squeeky bum time for Wu. Fabio’s won three in a row to close the score to 6-7. And like that, it’s 7-7. Fabio’s looking fabulous now. He is on fire! He runs out rack 15 to seize the lead for the first time, and the momentum’s definitely swung his way big time.

I arrive at table side to see Petroni winning rack 16 to get on the hill. My laptop would’ve charge up fast enough for me to bring it with me, and I couldn’t wait. No one that I support from table side has yet lost his match, and I sure hope to lend Wu some of my power now.

It’s not looking good, Fabio’s in his stride and showing no signs of letting up. He breaks well, the green is hanging on the lower right lip. He clears the table to the orange 5 ball, and plays a near perfect safety, the orange rolls up the table to hide behind the 9 ball, while the cue ball remains at the bottom cushion.

I have a confession, I am writing this from memory, with help from Taiwanese journalists sitting around me. The next shot is crucial; a while ago, Wu was here in the media room discussing the shot. Back at the table, Wu had sized up the shot, leaned down and prepared to go for the straight shot; he could see some of the ball, but at 7-9 down, he could well give the match away right there. Miss it and it’s ball in hand for Fabio, and game over. Hit it, and the cue ball could be anywhere, and sure as hell the orange won’t be going anywhere near entering the pocket. It could be game over as well.

Wu got up. Here’s what he said about that moment: “I was sitting there, wondering if I would ever get a chance back at the table. I knew he had a tough orange, and I took a while to get up after he made the safety. He’d played a good one, I could see enough of the ball but it was going to be a low percentage shot for sure.”

He continued: “My best option was hit it off the side cushion, and use a bit of strength and hope for the best result. It was a shot I am certain to make. Hitting it hard would just mix things up, hopefully he won’t have an easy shot after that.”

At this juncture, let me introduce you to my friend, Steven Lin, he is a pool coach, and owns a pool hall at Taipei’s Hsi Men Ting, THE place where young people like to hang out. He also writes a pool blog in Mandarin; do check it out, lot of celeb pictures. Makes me wish I could read Mandarin.

Here’s what Steven said about the shot Wu’s about to take. “Wu’s made a good decision playing the getting the orange off the cushion. The thing is, he has to hit the orange on the right side to send the orange down the table, and hope the cue ball then follows through off the top cushion and maybe hide behind the nine. In any case, there will be a fair distance between the cue ball and the orange, leaving Petroni a long pot. What you don’t want to do is hit the orange on the left, and risk scratching, because the cue ball could just roll on into the top left pocket, and it’s game over.”

Here what actually happened. Wu send the cue ball to the cushion, it hits the orange ball at an angle on the LEFT (!), the orange ball scoots away, and the cue ball follows through off the top cushion, then the left side cushion, and kisses the black at the centre of the table, and the black rolls into the right centre pocket! Holy mac-a-doodle-doo! An accidental carrom to keep Wu in the hunt.

Another Taiwanese pool coach once told me about Wu’s 2005 World Championship win that in any tournament, you need some measure of luck. Well Lady Luck just smiled on Wu in a BIG way. Now if only he could ride this wave to the end.

Wu duly cleans up rack 17, pausing for breath with every shot. Now it’s 8-9. There’s a fair bit of work to go and now’s a good time to string those consecutive racks, there are no longer any safety margins. Wu does not make things easy for himself, overplaying the 3 ball to get out of position for the 4. He plays a safety, sending the pink 4 down the table, but it’s not a good position. The pink settles 2 inches to the left of the pocket, there isn’t a straight shot, there is a 9 ball in the way, but a well-executed masse could just about kiss the pink on the left and into the pocket. Wu reckons its a simple shot, but by now Petroni’s been in his seat for a while, and his shooting arm’s gone cold. He overdoes the masse, kissing the pink fat, and brings Wu back to the table. That would be Fabulous Fabio’s final trip to the table. Wu cleans up to tie the score.

The TV producers decided chose at that precise moment to go for a long commercial break, Wu stood up to break and was sent back to his seat. He then asks the referee if there was enough time for him to take take a leak… given the yes, Wu half runs to the gents, and I sat there wondering if that would disrupt his rhythm in any way. God forbid the long break takes him off the groove. And damn if he comes back late and forfeits the rack.

In any case, Wu came back, composed himself, and sinks two off the break. Switching back to his playing cue, he runs the table to win by the narrowest of margins. I am ecstatic! My presence works! I reckon if he goes on to win the tournament, I can quietly ask him for 5%… that should cover my expenses this trip no problem.

Day 5 – Final 64 Earl Strickland vs Luong Chi Dung

Earl Strickland is fighting demons, no doubt about it. The three-time world champion still has game and a fair few supporters but he’s making hard work of his final 64 match against Vietnam’s Luong Chi Dung. Sitting at the media room, I see Earl taking an early lead but when arriving at the table, the lead is gone. Earl continues to talk to the audience, clearly he enjoys the attention.

He plays at breakneck speed, makes up his mind quickly what to do, and when Luong left him with a tough shot in rack 13, he went for his entension, not a time extension (that’s not applicable in this tournament) but that thing that extends his cue. He struggles to figure out his next shot – which way to lean over the table, even considered a left handed one, and everyone’s wondering why he’s not using the rest. He finally settles on the rest, and now we know why he’s not keen – he misses. Maybe too much thinking is not good for him. Luong duly cleans up to go 8-5 up.

But Earl is not done. A Luong mistake lets him claw back a rack, and now in rack 15, Earls playing a series of shots and safeties that makes him look dangerously back in the groove. He continues to play to the crowd, giving a running commentary to himself, and to his handful of fans who cares to listen to him, and coming out on top. It’s now 8-7 to Luong but with Earl breaking for rack 16, you can sense it’s anybody’s game now. Earl has sunk the 1 and 6 ball on the break. He plays 2-3 combo to sink the 3, and the next shot, he misses a regulatory pot on the 2. It’s Luong’s chance to put the American away but he misses too, the long shot to the top left corner bobbling at the pocket. Earl has something to say with every shot, something about a 747, and 110 pounds, don’t ask me what it means, I’ve not been following. I’m not a fan of crazy guys.

But Earl, it’s always ‘but Earl’ – like him or loath him, he is an enigma – he tidies up to tie the scores, hill-hill. And he breaks, and it’s dry. “I can’t believe this,” Earl says, walking to his seat. Luong is back at the table. He must have dragonflies in his belly, I am watching, and I have butterflies in mine. But Astro Boy doesn’t show it. Whatever nerves he has, he is dampening them and potting. Five strokes, five balls down. Four more to put Earl away.The green goes, cue ball cushions off the top to come in on the brown. They have all been long ones. He pushes in the brown and has another long one for the black. A delicate cut and the black goes. He has an off center shot for the 9, I stop typing, hoping it would help him. AND HE MISSES!

Even Earl cannot believe it. But there is no straight shot on, and Earl tries to bank it into the top right corner. He misses by two inches. The ball rests near the middle of the top cushion, the cue ball at the bottom. Luong walks up, checks to see if there is room for the bank, and he goes for it. The ball travels in an angle down to the bottom left corner, YESSS! I shout. Only to realise it’s now a race to TEN! Of course, this is the final 64, and now 10 becomes the magic number, not nine. Luong is only NOW on the hill. C’mon Astro Boy!

And he’s there! Luong has a good break, sets up a 5-9 carrom, and pots it to perfection. The cue ball kisses the orange, then the striped yellow, sending the nine into the top left corner pocket, and sending Earl, now quiet, home for another year. A great victory for Luong, and don’t forget, the Vietnamese reached the final eight last year. Well done Astro Boy, I’m going to shake his hand!

Luong, and he is still an young man, is over the moon. His friend Pham Tuan Ngoc keeps rubbing him on the head, they talk swiftly in Vietnamese, a Filipino journalist is desperate to interview him but there is not a Viet interpreter in sight, and blow if I can speak Vietnamese. The opportunity is lost, and surely if Luong makes it deep into this tournament, they’ll sort one out.

It’s a famous win for Luong, his first over Strickland, having lost to Earl and Rodney Morris in the World Doubles partnering Pham. Pham is up against Alex Pagulayan today, what price a Vietnamese double over former World Champions?

Luong Chi Dung 10, Earl Stickland 8. Chalk one up for Asia, says the Filipino journalist. I agree.

In Manila

It’s nearly 10.30pm and I’m sitting ringside at the Arenata Coliseum watching the battle of two former World Champions. It will be a joust to the death. Taiwan’s acknowledged King of Pool Chao Fong-Pang is playing American Johnny Archer in a loser’s pool decider. Both have reached this table courtesy of a win and a loss; in Archer’s case, it’s loss first, then win. The stakes are high, winner survives to play the knockout stages; loser goes home.

Twenty-two years ago, on October 1, 1975, two boxing greats duked it out in this very arena. Yes, this is the site for the Thrilla in Manila, as a red banner with white word proclaim proudly. Ali and Frazier were arguably two fighters at their prime. This match I am watching is nothing but.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge fan of Chao. No one gets to be a two-time world champion without being something special. Go to Youtube and type in “Chao Bustamante” and check out the winner-takes-all match Chao had with Django, that is one match and a half. Watch it even if you are not a fan, some of the shots are UNBELIEVABLE!

But the Chao of today is nothing like the Chao of 2001. I’ve watched him all year at the Guinness 9-Ball Tour when he made one final in Kaohsiung but failed to make much impact on a Tour he has yet to pick up a single tournament win. The Chao of today is no longer even based in Taiwan, he now trains the new generation of Asian pool players in Shanghai. Yes, the man who can call Yang Ching-Shun his best disciple is smart enough to ensure he gets top-dollar for imparting his skills to aspiring players, and if it means doing it for China, Taiwan’s avowed enemy, so be it. Back in Taiwan, this has not gone down well. But Chao, and I like to call him the Grandmaster as he has a penchant for chess, is not a man to make a move without due consideration. Right now, he is deliberately going his way around the table doing what he does best, and Archer may yet come out at the wrong end of the stick, Chao’s cue stick that is.

The Coliseum is deadly silent, not surprising since it is sparsely filled. Chao dropped the first rack but has since cleared five racks in a row to be more than halfway to the target. A push out has let Archer back on the table and the game could swing yet again. In a winner’s break format, it is not inconceivable that the next time Chao stands up will be to shake Archer’s hand. I hope not. Archer’s just taken the seventh rack to narrow the score to 5-2.

The flight to Manila in was quite uneventful. Having not had much sleep for a few days, due mostly to my obssessive compulsion playing Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 (the damned copy of TW PGA Tour 2008 bought from JB wouldn’t load up). For the record, I am two tournaments away from Q-School and should be making big bucks on the PGA Tour come mid-November. God save me!

Back to Manila… rack eight is becoming interesting. Archer’s been unable to capitalise on his break and had to play a safety on the blue (2 ball); Chao got up (yes he did), WITHOUT his cue, took a long look, then came back to play a neat little escape, working the cue ball to the far end of the table. Archer’s next safety attempt was far from perfect and Chao’s been able to pot the blue from a distance, and looks set to run out the rack. Coolly, clinically, he works the balls off the table and goes 6-2 up. Johnny’s got a hill to climb now.

The Ninoy Aquino Airport is like any other. Reminds me of Jakarta Airport. Then again, Manila’s much like Jakarta. The roads, the housing, the traffic (and the jam, I wonder if they call it ‘macet’ here as well?) and some of the language. Running into the fast food joint to break up my 500 peso note, I noticed they had a variety of Chinese food on the menu, including ’siomay’. The last time I saw this Cantonese dimsum spelt this way was at a roadside stall in Jakarta. They also offer ‘pancit’ on the menu. I had to laugh, pancit in Malay means puncture, as in a flat tyre for a bicycle. Apparently pronouced ‘pan-sit’, it stands for noodles here.

Chao’s scratch on potting the yellow in rack nine has let Archer in. The score’s now 6-3, Chao still in front, but the momentumj could swing, and it could swing hard. 24 hours ago this time, China’s Li He Wen was at the receiving end of such a swing. Up 5-0 and seemingly on his way to a final 64 berth, Li could only watch as three-time champion Earl Strickland strung nine straight racks to shut him out. Instead of chalking up a famous victory and perhaps go one better than last year when Li was a semi-finalist, he could only sit as the camera captured him red-faced (and I really mean red-faced) as Strickland potted out the last rack. And just so you know, Strickland’s early conqueror Alan Tan of Malaysia DID NOT make the final 64, a late night loss to Austria’s Dejan Dabovic put paid to Malaysia’s representation in this tournament.

Chao takes rack 10, and 11. And he is, in pool parlance, on the hill. I need to find out how this term comes about. Why is it when you are one rack from victory, you are ‘on the hill’? What does that mean? Does it mean when you win, you are over the hill?

Chao has won the safety duel, all that remains between him and final 64 are five balls on the table; make that four; three; green for two with a soft cushion, he’s in position for the black, with a follow-through cushion for the nine; he plays it to perfection and the nine goes down. Chao lives to fight another day! A comprehensive 9-3 win.

The Coliseum has come to life late in the night as hoemtown favourite Dennis Orcollo’s match with Japan’s Satoshi Kawabata goes the distance. Breaking in the deciding rack 17, a bad cueball position meant Orcollo had to play a safety on the blue, and he did not do a good job. Kawabata sinks the blue and sets up a long shot on the green, and coolly sinks a 6-9 combo to win. The small Japanese contingent erupts, waving their flag, and they have every right to celebrate. It has been a good day for the Nippon with both Kawabata and Naoyuki Oi taking the short route into the final 64 with two straight wins.

Tomorrow the final 64 begins…

Getting going…

Call me a Sports Addict. That would be a fair description.

I sit here in front of my TV writing this first post on my new toy, a used Fujitsu Lifebook picked up on the cheap from eBay. Alan Tan, someone I’ve never heard of but will soon find out more about, is playing Fabulous Fabio Petroni, trailing 3-5, with the magic number being 9. The pictures are coming live from Manila, on ESPN, where the World Pool Championship 2007 is being held. This time tomorrow, I should be updating this blog from the media room there at the Araneta Coliseum in the heart of Quezon City, as the ESPN commentators like to say.

Pardon me if this blog is bereft of the usual fizz and bang you’d expect from a seasoned blogger. I’m a blog virgin. And this be my first grand project. All the fancy stuff can come later. Right this moment, my intent is simple. I am leaving for Manila tomorrow to catch the worl’d premier pool event. It will be my working holiday while I plan my next career move. And I intend to have lots of fun. Depending on what sort of internet connection I get, I would endeavour to bring as live updates, scores, interviews and quirky tales from a city I’ve never been to. And if it all works out, you might just get to hear an interview or two in Hokkien, or Bahasa Indonesia… whatever the players feel comfortable speaking in.

Last Saturday, 128 players embarked on the journey to be the next World Pool Champion. More than just the US$100,000 for the winner, there is the coveted title that comes with it. I’ve met four of them in person in the course of my work, and they carry themselves well. By the time tonight is through, 48 of the starters would no longer be in the competition, and chances are, they will be taking all-comers in money games in the Manila pool halls while waiting for their flights home.

I can also tell you that one former champion has not survived the Group Stage, 2003 champion Thorsten Hohmann is the first big gun to crash out, losing to Taiwanese teenager Ko Pin-yi 3-9, and then to Canada’s Edwin Montal 6-9. A couple of top fancies flirted with disaster in the first two days, The Magician Efren Reyes and Taiwan’s perenniel top gun Yang Ching-shun both lost their openers before stringing two straight wins to reach the final 64. Three-time World Champion Earl Strickland lost 2-9 to Malaysia’s Tan earlier today and must not lose again if he wants to stay on in Manila. Earl The Pearl’s antics have started early, and trust me, he will not fancy playing late into the night to survive the Group Stage, and I would expect he’ll have something to say about that.

For pool newbies, here’s a crash course on this event: this is the World Championship for 9 Ball Pool. 9 Ball is played on a 9′ by 4.5′ table, with the requisite six pockets. The object of the game is to pot all nine balls in correct order to win a rack. There are short cuts to victory, which you will be able to catch on once you watch it on TV long enough. At this World Championship, it is a race to 9 for the Group Stage, which means the player who wins nine racks first will win the match. If you win a rack, you get to ‘break’, meaning you get to start the rack. At the break, you need to sink at least one ball to continue playing and so forth.

This year, the WPC has adopted the ‘double elimination’ system for the Group Stage. I’m new to this too but I love it. It simply means if you lose twice, you go home. All the major Open tournament in the USA use this system and I reckon whoever thought up this system is a genius, it is simple and it’s fair.

The 128 players have been divided into 16 groups of eight players. Four groups play on each of the first four days. From each group, four players will go home, and four players will advance. As a player, your objective is to win two matches. The easiest way would be to win your first two matches, and you get to rest. If you lose your first match, no worries, you can still win the next two and advance. You could also win one, lose the next, and win again to advance. That’s what Alan Tan will have to do now, he’s just lost to Petroni 6-9.

Or Tan could be like Poland’s Thomasz Kaplan who impressively blanked American Tony Robles 9-0 in his opening match only to lose his next two (to Malta’s Tony Drago and to Reyes, both by 4-9 margins). All that good work Tan did dismantling Strickland would count for nothing if he does not win his final Group match. I wish him all the best. Lose, win and lose, and you’re out too… two losses will take you out.

I arrive tomorrow just after action begins on Day 4, the final Group Stage day. Once the final 64 are decided, the competition goes into a straight knock-out format. To be World Champion, you would need to win seven more matches, and only one player will do that. What are the odds that you’d be able to read an exclusive SportsAddick interview with the next World Champion? That be my task!