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14 out of 16 Seeds Through
Russia, with a combined age of 42 making them the youngest team in the tournament, looked older than their years as they put in an excellent performance to oust Denmark from the 2009 PartyCasino.net World Cup of Pool at the SM Mall North Annex in Manila.
Konstantin Stepanov is 25 and Ruslan Chinakhov is 17 but they controlled the match from start to finish as they restricted Denmark to few chances and converted their own.
Denmark struggled throughout and failed to take their chances as Russia moved quickly into a 5-1 lead. There was no real way back from that for the Danish pair of Kasper Kristoffersen & Bahram Lotfy.
They managed another couple of racks but it was all Russia as they went forward to round two.
We practice together and were friends off the table as well and I think that helps in this type of format, said Stepanov after the match.
In the final round one match, Team Holland, wearing very stylish national team shirts, made it 14 out of 16 of the seeded teams into the second round at the expense of former World Cup semi-finalists Vietnam.
Niels Feijen and Nick Van Den Berg have always been among the favourites in the four years of this competition and they looked very methodical as they kept well ahead of the opposition.
Similar to the earlier game, the classy Dutch moved into a 5-0 lead and in the brutal race-to-eight winner breaks format. A missed 9 ball from Van den Berg let the Viet team of Luong Chi Dung and Nguyen Thanh Nam but there was to be no comeback as the Dutch took the next for 6-1.
Vietnam managed a couple more but it would be Team Holland who would take the second round spot where they would face Japan.
We started off great, made a couple of errors and had to regain our composure and finish the job which we did, said Feijen.
Russia, with a combined age of 42 making them the youngest team in the tournament, looked older than their years as they put in an excellent performance to oust Denmark from the 2009 PartyCasino.net World Cup of Pool at the SM Mall North Annex in Manila.
Complete First Round Results
Holland 8 3 Vietnam
Russia 8 3 Denmark
Poland 8 0 Belgium
Chinese Taipei 8 6 Singapore
Philippines A 8 5 Thailand
England 8 4 Malaysia
Germany 8 0 Hong Kong
Japan 8 6 Croatia
Italy 8 5 Austria
Finland 8 3 Sweden
Philippines B 8 3 Qatar
USA 8 7 Malta
Indonesia 8 3 India
Spain 8 3 Australia
China 8 5 Korea
France 8 1 Canada
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