Luong and Condo First to Advance

Luong and Condo First to Advance
Luong Chi Dung of Vietnam and Australia’s Louis Condo are the first two billiards players to reach the last 32 of the 2007 Philippines World Pool Championships. A quarter-finalist in Manila last year, Luong put paid to the hopes of 2002 Champion Earl Strickland in an exciting encounter on Table 2.
Luong, the Hanoi based 22-year-old, must be the smallest player in the tournament at just under five feet tall but his heart is big and he recovered from an easy missed 9 ball in the 17th rack with the scores at 8-8.
Strickland played an excellent safety leaving the cue ball and the 9 at opposite ends of the table but the Vietnamese boldly banked it up the table and home to reach the hill. Victory came with a superb carom off the 5 ball that saw the 9 roll gently and drop for a place in the last 32.
Almost immediately after the conclusion of that match, Australian Louis Condo continued his excellent form as he won six consecutive racks to beat Singapore’s Chan Keng Kwan. Condo had great wins in the group stages as he beat Imran Majid and Kuo Po-Cheng but it was a superb performance that saw him advance.
Condo has reached the last 64 stage of the World Pool Championship on two occasions but this is his best showing yet.
The next match completed saw Raj Hundal of England crash out at the hands of experienced Taiwanese Lee Kun-fang 10-6.