2007 World Cup of Pool

The 2007 World Cup of Pool was a pairs nine-ball tournament played at the Outland nightclub in Rotterdam, Netherlands.[1][2] The tournament was played between 25 and 30 September 2007 as scotch doubles, with players taking shots alternatively.[1][3] Matches were played as a race-to-nine racks until the final, which was played as a race-to-thirteen.[4][1] The tournament was a single-elimination bracket, consisting of 32 teams.[1] The event was played with winner breaks system, as opposed to the alternative breaks format used in the inaugural event. The event was the second World Cup of Pool event, sponsored by Partypoker, and created by Matchroom Sport.[1] The event would see 16 seeded and 16 unseeded teams of two play alternating shots in scotch doubles style.[5] The defending champions were Efren Reyes and Francisco Bustamante representing the Philippines, who had defeated the USA team of Earl Strickland and Rodney Morris in the 2006 final 13–5.[1][6][7]

The event was filmed and broadcast by Matchroom Sport across 31 single hour programs. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, it was broadcast on Sky TV with additional commentary by Phil Yates and Jim Wych.[8] Local highlights were shown on SBS 6 in the Netherlands, with Fox Net also broadcasting in the United States.[8] The programs were broadcast on IKO Kábeltévé in Serbia, Romania, Slovakia and Czech Republic; 7 TV in Russia; CC-TV in China; Fox Australia in Australia; Measat in Malaysia; Measat Indo in Indonesia; NEO Sports in India; Rogers Sportsnet in Canada, Solar Entertainment in the Philippines; Sport 1 in Hungary and Videoland in Taiwan.[8]

The first round of the event was played from 25 to 27 September as a race to eight racks.[4] Before the event, the Malaysian team of Patrick Ooi and Ibrahim Bin Amir withdrew from the event, due to "unforeseen circumstances", and were replaced by a Belgian pair of Serge Das and Noel Bruynooghe.[12] The pair met the Dutch B team; and won six racks in a row to win the match over the Dutch 8–2.[13] The 16th seeded Russian pair of Ruslan Chinachov and European number one Konstantin Stepanov were defeated by the Croatian team of Philipp Stojanovic and Ivica Putnik in the opening round 5–8.[14] The Japan team of Naoyuki Ōi and Satoshi Kawabata won 8–2 over David Alcaide and Antonio Fazane from Spain despite dropping the opening rack.[14] Lương Chí Dũng and Thanh Nam Nguyen representing Vietnam had made the semi-finals in the inaugural event, but were defeated by the South Korean team 5–8, despite being 5–3 ahead.[15] The English team of Imran Majid and Daryl Peach came from 3–6 behind to defeat the Polish side of Radosław Babica and Mateusz Śniegocki 8–6.[16] There was only one match in the first round that went to a deciding rack, as the 2006 finalists USA team won 8–7 over Malta having taken the last four racks.[4][17][18]

The second round was played on 27 to 29 September as a race to eight racks.[4] Japan played the sole remaining Dutch team in the second round, and having trailed 6–7 won the final two racks to win 8–7.[18] The Switzerland team trailed 5–2 behind the US, but recovered to tie at 6–6 before winning the match 8–6.[17] The USA pair were wearing orange shirts, the traditional colour of the Netherlands, after both Dutch teams had been eliminated.[17] The Belgian team, composed of Bruynooghe and Das who were ranked 46th and 60th in Europe, defeated 2005 WPA World Nine-ball Championship winner Wu Jia-qing and world championship semi-finalist Yang Ching-shun from Taiwan 8–6.[17] The defending championship winning Filipino team completed a 8–0 whitewash over the Croatians.[18] France and China were tied at 5–5 before Vincent Faquet completed a run out to lead 6–5. During the next two racks, the French failed to escape from snookers allowing the Chinese team of Li Hewen and Fu Jianbo to win them before they broke and ran rack 13 for victory.[19] The Singapore team also defeated Austria 8–2, for all four quarter-finalists in the top half coming from Asia.[19]

The quarter-finals were played on 29 September as a race to nine racks.[4] Japan defeated Singapore 9–5 in the first quarter-final, making jokes throughout the match to the crowd.[20] In rack 10, Ōi made a three ball combination to pot the 9-ball on the first shot after the break, with both players jumping up and down in celebration after the shot.[20] Having defeated the Taiwan team in the second round, the Belgian duo were "drained" according to reporters, and were only able to win four racks against Canada.[20] The defending champions Filipino pair were defeated by the Chinese team 6–9.[21] The Chinese team took an early four rack lead, but their lead was reduced to 7–6. In rack 14, Reyes missed a simple shot on the 6-ball, and China won the rack, before running rack 15.[21] The last quarter-final saw Finland's Mika Immonen and Markus Juva defeat Switzerland 9–4.[21]

Li Hewen (pictured in 2012) alongside Fu Jianbo won the event with a 11–10 win over Finland

The semi-finals were played on 30 September as a race to nine racks.[4] The first semi-final saw the 10th seeded Finland play the 11th seeded Canadian team.[22] Finland won the lag, but made a dry break in the opening rack, but retained the break throughout the match as they won 9–0. The Canadian team only played nine shots in the entire match.[22] The other semi-final match was played between China, seeded 8th and the unseeded Japanese team.[11][22][23] The Chinese team ran the first two racks, before three players missed a shot at the 9-ball in rack three, with Hewen finally potting to increase the lead to 3–0.[22] China then won four of the next five racks to lead 7–1.[22] However, Hewen missed a shot on the 2-ball the following rack allowing Japan to the table, who won the next three racks.[22] China capitalised on a missed bank shot to win the next two racks, and complete a 9–4 victory.[22]

The final was also played on 30 September, but as a race-to-11 racks.[4] The Chinese team of Hewen and Jianbo met the Finland pair of Juva and Immonen.[24] The final had a lot of dry breaks, with six in the first 15 racks, having had just ten in the rest of the tournament.[24] There was just one rack between the two sides until China led 6–4 and then 7–5.[24] China then won three of the next four to go to the hill, leading 10–6. The Finland team, however, won four straight frames to level the match at 10–10.[24] At the table in the deciding rack, Immonen potted a ball from the break, and left a combination shot for Juva to pot the 9-ball to win the tournament; however, the shot did not come off, and the Chinese pair ran the rest of the rack to win the tournament.[24]

Below is the results from the event. Teams in bold denote match winners.[11] Numbers to the left of teams represents the team's seedings.[24][4][10]

	Round of 32 Race to 8					Round of 16 Race to 8					Quarter-finals Race to 9					Semi-finals Race to 9					Final Race to 11
	1	Philippines	8
		Scotland	6
						1	Philippines	8
							Croatia	0
	16	Russia	5
		Croatia	8
											1	Philippines	6
											8	China	9
	9	Italy	2
		France	8
							France	6
						8	China	8
	8	China	8
		South Africa	1
																8	China	9
																	Japan	4
	5	Netherlands A	8
		Indonesia	5
						5	Netherlands A	7
							Japan	8
	12	Spain	2
		Japan	8
											Japan		9
											Singapore		5
	13	Austria	8
		Australia	5
						13	Austria	2
							Singapore	8
	4	Germany	4
		Singapore	8
																					8	China	11
																					10	Finland	10
	3	Chinese Taipei	8
		Denmark	3
						3	Chinese Taipei	6
							Belgium	8
	14	Belgium	8
		Netherlands B	2
												Belgium	4
											11	Canada	9
	11	Canada	8
		India	3
						11	Canada	8
							South Korea	2
	6	Vietnam	5
		South Korea	8
																11	Canada	0
																10	Finland	9
	7	England	8
		Poland	6
						7	England	5
						10	Finland	8
	10	Finland	8
		Qatar	5
											10	Finland	9
											15	Switzerland	4
	15	Switzerland	8
		Hungary	5
						15	Switzerland	8
						2	United States	6
	2	United States	8
		Malta	7

• 2007 World Cup of Pool at azbilliards.com

• Official website