Monday, June 18, 2007 Hard-luck Corteza fails anew By Charles Raymond A. Maxey
THE last Filipino standing in the third leg of the 2007 Guinness nine-Ball Tour in Malaysia has also fell by the wayside.
And for Lee Vann Corteza, he suffered yet another painful defeat after losing to former two-time world champion Chao Fong-Chang in the quarterfinals Sunday night at the Genting Highlands International Convention Center.
Corteza, the 28-year-old pool master from Davao City, lost the lag, trailed early at one-four and never recovered as he went down five-nine against his veteran opponent.
Corteza actually had a chance to get back into the match when he trailed five-six and was breaking in the 12th rack. But he came up dry on his break and allowed Chao to seize control anew.
The Davao player advanced to the quarterfinals after topping Group F with victories over Naoyuki Oi of Japan and Ryu Seong-Woo of South Korea.
Earlier, compatriot Roberto Gomez lost by the slimmest of margins, eight-nine, to Indonesian top player Ricky Yang.
This was the third time Filipino players failed to win a leg thus far in the Tour this year.
Corteza reached the finals of the initial leg in Jakarta, Indonesia last April, but lost the crown to another Taiwanese bet.
In the second leg, no Filipino made it to the finals in Kaohsiung, and a Taiwanese ruled that edition anew.
The semifinal and final matches were scheduled late yesterday afternoon with Yang playing Dharminder Singh Lilly in the first match and Chao facing fellow Taiwanse and first lef winenr Chang Jung-Lin in the second encounter.
