German Billiard Duo Stumbles Philippines World Pool Championship

German Billiard Duo Stumbles Philippines World Pool Championship
Thorsten Hohmann, the 2003 Champion, has hit early trouble in the group stages of the 2007 Philippines World Pool Championship as he dropped his opening game 9-3 to 18-year-old Ko Pin-yi of Taiwan.
Ko, who was a runner-up at last year’s WPA World Junior Championship, battled through the ultra-tough qualifying school last week at Star Billiards Center to secure his spot in the 128 man starting line-up.
Taking place on Table 2, Hohmann took the early lead before the young Taiwanese player pegged it back to two racks apiece.
From there, Ko took the next four to move into a 6-2 lead in the race-to-9 winner breaks match. Hohmann took the ninth game but that was to be his final contribution to the scoreboard.
It was an impressive performance from the youngster and he can now look forward to a match with Belgium�s unheralded Serge Das who recorded a fine 9-3 win over Edwin Montal (Canada). Montal now meets Hohmann in a do-or-die battle to stay in the Championship.
There was more bad news for the Germans as last year’s runner-up Ralf Souquet lost 9-5 to wily old campaigner Leonardo Andam of the Philippines.
The veteran Andam who has competed at top level for 20 years is always dangerous as he always held the lead from the off. He will now meet England’s Raj Hundal who had a comfortable 9-4 win over Singapore’s Bernard Tey Choon Kiat, now Souquet’s next opponent.
Earlier, Thomas Engert gave flagging German pride a boost with a nice 9-2 victory of Prince Muhtadee Billah of Brunei, who now meets Hong Kong’s Lee Chenman to stay in the event.