Orcollo, De Luna reach quarterfinal

MANILA, Philippines - Dennis Orcollo disposed of local bet Adolof Leunupun, posting a five-rack total time of 5 minutes, 18 seconds against the Indonesian’s 8:13 effort to crash into the quarterfinal round of the 2012 Guinness World Series of Pool: Speed Ball Challenge in Surabaya, Indonesia yesterday.

Jeffrey De Luna joined the former world 8-ball champion later with a five-minute victory over another local bet in veteran Ricky Yang (5:38).

Orcollo, who bucked flu-like symptoms in the preliminary stages, made a solid run in his head-to-head round-of-16 encounter with Leunupun, completing an impressive opening rack of 58 seconds that set the tone for the match.

Orcollo made a few mistakes in the second with a 6-ball corner pocket miss and in the fourth with a bungled 2-ball attempt, but he managed to keep his clocking to an average of just under a minute.

Leunupun failed to keep up with the pace and bowed to the Filipino ace in front of his home crowd.

Orcollo will take on another Indonesian, Cherry Suliawan (5:58), who defeated compatriot Iwan Saga (7:49) for a berth in the semis.

De Luna, on the other hand, will have his hands full against current world number one Darren Appleton of Great Britain, who beat American Shane Van Boening, 4:33 against 5:09.  

“I’ve finally found a good strategy to get great times. When you break, you should not rush the first shot. You must wait for the balls to settle and then pick the best pattern from there,” said Orcollo.

Earlier, Blackburn native Karl Boyes put on a fantastic show (4:47), beating Indonesian Ferdi (8:06). Finland’s Mika Immonen (5:27) thrashed another local bet Muhammad Andre (6:28).