Wednesday, August 29, 2007 Corteza, Alcano now in Bali for grand finals
THE Top 10 Asian players have landed in the beautiful shores of Bali, Indonesia for the final showdown of the 2007 Guinness 9-Ball Tour Grand Finals at the luxurious Grand Hyatt Bali in Nusa Dua.
The event will start on Aug. 31 and lasts until Sept. 2.
Of the 10 finalists, two are Filipino hopefuls—double WPC champion Ronato “The Volcano” Luat and Lee Van “The Slayer Corteza.
However, it will be a tough challenge for the Pinoy cue masters as they have to get past four Chinese Taipei players that include top seed Yang Ching-Shun, who won three legs, Chang Jung-Lin, two-time WPA champion Chao Fong-Pang and the 2005 WPA 8-ball and 9-Ball world champion Wu Chia-Ching.
Prizes
The Grand Final offers a total of $70,000 in cash prizes with the winner to walk away with the top purse of $36,000.
The other qualifiers are Ricky Yang of Indonesia, Ibrahim Amir of Malaysia, Dharminder Singh Lilly of India and Bernard Rey of Singapore.
The Bali Grand Final is the culmination of more than four months of intense pool competition held over five countries. The players earned valuable points to finish within the top 10 of the Order of Merit list.
Crowds
During the course of previous legs, 43 top-class players from 12 countries played to passionate crowds across the region from Jakarta, Kaohsiung, Singapore and Shanghai.
Aside from making it to Bali, the 10 finalists are now qualified to join the November WPA World 9-Ball Championship which will be held at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.
The Guinness tour is the only qualifying tournament in Asia for the world pool championship. (RCM)
