8-ball, 9-ball champs secure spots in world 10-ball affair

Two reigning world champions lead a stellar cast of cue artists in the World 10-ball Championships scheduled in September.

Daryl Peach of England, the current world 9-ball king, and Ralf Souquet of Germany, the world 8-ball titlist, are expected to participate in the tournament that will be held in Manila.

Joining Peach and Souquet are previous qualifiers Wu Chia-Ching of Chinese-Taipei and Antonio Gabica of the Philippines.

Wu and Gabica won the WTBC qualifying events through the Philippine Pool Tour.

Wu, a double world champion in 8-ball and 9-ball in 2005, won the Puerto Princesa Mayor’s Cup of the PPT last June in Puerto Princesa City.

Gabica, the reigning Philippine Open and Asian Games champion, won the Mandaluyong Mayor’s Cup of the PPT last May in Mandaluyong City.

Europe’s no.1 lady player Jasmin Ouschan of Austria will also see action in the top-tier event.

Europeans picked to rule World Ten Ball tilt

Backstopped by three world champions, Europe will try to add the Ten Ball plum to its list of championship collections as it will send a strong 44-man contingent in the inaugural staging of the World Ten Ball Championship from Sept.29 to Oct.5 at the Philippine International Convention Center in Manila.

Ralf Souquet of Germany, winner of this year’s 8-Ball title; Daryl Peach, the reigning World 9-Ball title holder; and Neils Feijen, the recent champion of the World Straight Pool, head the European invaders in the WTBC—sanctioned and run by the World Pool Association, the world’s governing body in billiards.

The event is being organized by Raya Sports.

Gre Leenders, secretary-general of the European Pocket Billiards Federation, submitted its roster this Tuesday following the completion of qualifiers in Europe during the weekend.

The 41 other European players selected by EPBU for the WTBC are Thomas Engert, Oliver Ortmann, Christian Reimering, Sascha Tege, Christian Weigoni and Daniel Merbitz of Germany; Mark Gray, Imran Majid, Darren Appleton, Jonni Fulcher and Karl Boyes of Great Britain; Bruno Muratore, Fabio Petroni and Patrick Menillo of Italy; David Alcaide and Carlos Cabello of Spain; Nick van den Berg and Huidji See of The Netherlands; Radoslaw Babica, Tomasz Kaplan and Mateusz Sniegocki of Poland; Marco Tschudi and Dimitri Jungo of Switzerland; Zoran Zvillar and Sandor Tot of Serbia; Martin Kempter and Albin Ouschan of Austria; Marcus Juva of Finland; Marcus Chamat of Sweden; Vilmos Foldes of Hungary; Tony Drago of Malta; Martin Larsen of Denmark; Murat Ayas of Turkey; Stephan Cohen and Vincent Facquet of France; Konstantin Stepanov and Ruslan Chinahov of Russia; Roman Hybler of Czech Republic; Ivica Putnik of Croatia; Matjaz Erculj of Slovenia; and Farhad Shaverdi of Iran.