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FINLAND OUSTS USA, ASSURES THERE WILL BE A NEW WINNER IN THE WORLD CUP OF POOL

PhilBoxing.com


Finland?s pair of former World Pool Champion Mika Immonen and Petri Makkonen rode their luck in the face of costly errors down the stretch by the United States duo of former winners Rodney ?The Rocket? Morris and ?The South Dakota Kid? Shane Van Boening to storm into the finals of the PartyPoker. Net ?World Cup of Pool? with a dramatic 9-7 win at Robinson?s place in Manila.

The Finnish pair who had earlier ousted defending champions Ralf Souquet and Thorsten Hohmann and gave crowd favorites Efren ?Bata? Reyes and Francisco ?Django? Bustamante a 9-5 drubbing in the quarter finals, held their nerve to wrap up the last two racks after tying the Americans 7-7 when Morris hurried his shot on the 4-ball and Makkonen came up with a great shot to level the score.

An illegal break by Makkonen but another bad miss on the 7-ball by Morris after an exchange of s safeties paved the way for Immonen to sink the 2-ball and bury the 9-ball off the rebound in what the Solar Sports TV commentators said was ?outrageous luck? to put the Finns on the hill at 8-7, in the process winning their third rack in a row.

Some excellent safeties were broken when Van Boening sank the 2-ball on an incredible jump shot but the high drama continued as Morris who appeared to be haunted by the 6-ball staying on the edge of the pocket gave Finland a chance to clean-up and await a crack at the winners of the second semi final between Poland and Chinese-Taipei.

Morris and Van Boening looked set to make a run for their second World Cup of Pool title but luck was not on their side which was also undone by the hastiness of Morris in taking some critical shots.

Reyes and Bustamante were never in contention even after they clawed back to come wining a rack at 5-6 in the quarter finals.

After Petri Makkonen dogged the 9-ball ball in the opening rack the youngster seemed to grow in confidence helped along by former world champion Mika Immonen.

A ball in hand opportunity for the Finns in the next made the score 7-5 and they took the next two to take the match, Immonen closing it out with a great 7/9 combination.

In a post match interview Immonen said ?We?ve already beaten two World Cup of Pool champions and if we keep it together, break well, keep our composure then we have every chance. We?ve had our moments ? the last match Petri carried me and tonight I carried him.?

Immonen added ?With the crowd here, you have to keep your opponents in their seat and that keeps the crowd quiet. There was a bit of tension in the middle part of the match and we had our moment of doubt, but we made the openings and then closed the door.?




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