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Saturday, July 09, 2005
Manalo logs another rout, enters q-finals
By Mike T. Limpag
Sun.Star Correspondent
In A day of political turmoil back home, the Philippines’ Marlon Manalo made all Filipinos proud as he made history in the 2005 World Pool Championships with an 11-0 whitewash of Ying Chieh Chen in the last 16 in Kaoshiung, Taiwan.
Manalo is the first to earn two straight routs after a 10-0 win over Chien Che Huang in the last 32, bringing his total number of straight racks won to 23 since his 10-9 win over Charles Bryant after trailing 8-9.
“Never before and never again,” one of the commentators said of Manalo’s unprecedented second blowout win. ESPN, perhaps sensing history to be made, transferred the TV coverage from the Mika Immonen-Corey Dueul match to Manalo’s game just as the Filipino they called “Marvelous” was up 8-0.
Earlier, another match commentator, Bob Guerrero, gave his updates in the Matchroom.com forum on Manalo’s game, which was not on TV.
According to Guerrero, Manalo won the lag and the first rack before Chen missed a bank on the next rack to give Manalo a 2-0 edge. Chen again missed a long shot on the five in next rack, while Manalo broke and cleaned up two racks for a 4-0 lead in just 12 minutes.
Another break and run out ended with a one-nine combination, which stretched Manalo’s lead to 6-0.
“He seems very confident and relaxed. His breaking is unbelievable. (He) gets a ball all the time, white in the middle, plus the scatter of the balls is perfect,” Guerrero said.
After a series of safeties, Chen missed a four-seven combo and Manalo pounced to go 8-0.
“With the current political turmoil hanging in our heads, we badly need this one to inspire us,” one fan posted.
Up 9-0, the match went live on TV and the two players exchanged safeties before the Taiwanese missed a tough draw on the three, and Manalo went 10-0.
Chen’s biggest chance to score was in the last rack after Manalo scratched on the two. However, Chen had to force a bank on the three, which he again missed.
Manalo dropped the last three, putting him back to the quarterfinal round against the winner of the Duel-Immonem match.
Meanwhile, Chinese sensation Wu Chiang Chi defeated Marcus Chamat, 11-5, to advance, while Nick Van den Berg defeated Vilmos Foldes, 11-10. Foldes earlier defeated Alex Pagulayan, 10-8, in the last 32.
(July 9, 2005 issue)
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