Germans breeze past Serbs, face Thais

MANILA, Philippines – An ailing Ralf Souquet flashed superb shotmaking as he and partner Thorsten Hohmann hammered Serbia’s Andrea Klasovic and Zoran Svilar, 8-1, to chart a good start to Germany’s title-retention bid in the 2012 PartyPoker.net World Cup of Pool at Robinsons Place, Manila last night.

Souquet, who was downed by food poisoning and had to be administered IV drip on the eve of the match, shook off the illness in the noontime duel to lead top seed Germany to the convincing win over the overmatched Serbs.

The Germans seized the first three racks of the race-to-eight, Round 1 encounter and by the eighth rack, they were unassailably on the hill, 7-1.

“I think Ralf played great. I made a few more decision-making mistakes than him,” Hohmann said after he and Souquet bundled out the Serbian pair in the opener of the $250,000 tournament.

“The big factor was the break. We still haven’t figured it out but we got lucky because when we left it open, they missed a few times or they didn’t have a shot and had to play safe or kick. Then they would leave it open and of course, once it’s open, it’s easy for us,” he added.

Germany will meet Thailand in Round 2 tomorrow, giving Souquet time to recover to full strength.

“We have a day a half to rest now which is good. I’m very weak. Except for a piece of dry toast this morning, I haven’t eaten anything since Monday,” said Souquet.

This will be an early encounter of the two finalists last year, this time with only a quarterfinal berth at stake.

Seeded 14th, Thailand’s Nitiwat Kanjanasri and Kobkit Palajin disposed of Malaysia’s Patrick Ooi Fook Yuen and Ibrahim Bin Amir, 8-4, pulling off the win by taking the last four racks after a 4-all count.

Former world champion Alex Pagulayan, now representing his adopted country Canada in partnership with John Morra, emerged triumphant in a hill-hill battle with Sweden’s Marcus Chamat and Andreas Gerwen, 8-7.

The Canadians and the Swedish engaged in a duel of safeties for three shots in the final rack before the former saw an open path to steal the win.

Pagulayan and Morra marched to the Round of 16, facing a possible duel with Efren “Bata” Reyes and Francisco “Django” Bustamante of Philippines B. 

Reyes and Bustamante, winners of the event in 2006 and 2009, were playing Hong Kong’s Chenman and Kenny Kowk at press time.

Also marching on to the next round was USA’s Shane Van Boening and Rodney Morris, who outlasted India’s Raj Hundal and Amar Kang, 8-7.

Meanwhile, Philippines Team A of Dennis Orcollo and Lee Van Corteza, the No. 2 seeds, start their quest tonight against Switzerland’s Dimitri Jungo and Ronni Regli.