Day Two of the World Team Championships
On the second day of the World Team Championships in Hanover/Germany, most of the seeded teams had their first appearance. The Philippines, with two-time world champ Ronnie Alcano; Germany 1 with the reigning 8-ball world champion, Ralf Souquet; and the Britain team, with Darren Appleton, finally entered the arena.
But the first highlight of the day was definitely the match between Czech Republic and Korea. After being down 0:3 the players from Prague had a great comeback and tied the score, so the Shoot-Out had to decide. Korea was up 5:2 and just need one more point, but the Czech team came back again and won 8:6 in a very exciting match.
Denmark also needed the Shoot-Out to win the match against the young guns from Hungary.
In less than two and a half hours, the Philippines had won 4:0 against the second team from Great Britain. Every single match was quite close, but in the end it was Alcano & Co. to win 4:0. With the same results the German squad with Thorsten Hohmann and Souquet reached the next round. Team Serbia had no chance to make a point against the well-supported Germans.
Although the final result of 4:1 for the Chinese quartet sounds lopsided, quite clearly the match against Germany 2 was thrilling for the spectators. Germany was down 0:3 as Oliver Ortmann kept his team alive by besting Li He-Wen 8:6 in 9-Ball. In the final two 10-ball games Ortmann was up the whole match until he scratched in the deciding game. At the same time Dominic Jentsch was on the winning road after being down 0:4. Too bad for the local heroes from Hanover.
Appleton is looking to lead the Britain Team to glory.
Tomorrow evening at 6:00 p.m. CET the U.S. boys will enter the tournament. Johnny Archer and his teammates are in a good mood and looking forward to their first appearance at the WTC. Straight pool world champ Stephanè Cohen and his friends are already waiting for that very promising clash.
Results and live scoring: www.wpapoolonline.com
Online coverage (one recording per day): www.cueball-vision.de
Official website: www.wtc-2010.com
Official pictures: www.touch-magazine.net
German press releases: http://portal.billardarea.de/cms_blog
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