By Mark Angelo Mañez

PHOTO: SPIN PH

Filipino pool duo Jeff de Luna and Roberto Gomez dispatch Great Britain B's duo of Kelly and Allison Fisher, 7-3, in their first round encounter at the 2021 World Cup of Pool, Tuesday evening (Manila time).

The Filipinos, aiming for their fourth World Cup of Pool crown routed their more accomplished opponents, one of the two female pairs competing (Belarus' Margarita Fefilova and Yana Halliday are the other). to kick off their campaign in the Matchroom Sport-promoted tournament with a US$250,000 prize fund.

This also set up a titanic clash between them and 7th seed United States duo of Skyler Woodward and Billy Thorpe after dispatching 26th seed Australia, 7-2, in the nightcap.

Both teams split the first two racks of the match, before Allison Fisher bungled her shot at the brown seven-ball in rack one, opening up things for the Filipinos.

The 10th seed Filipinos, aiming for the country's fourth world doubles title since legends Efren Reyes and Francisco Bustamante winning the inaugural edition in 2006, then raced to a 5-1 advantage before settling for the final result.

"The first match is always the tough one," said Gomez during the post-match interview. 

This year's edition had seen monumental upsets, with defending champions Austria getting the boot after being pummeled by last seed Slovakia, 7-1. 

3rd seed Spain eliminated by 30th seed Italy (4-7), and 6th seed Poland getting trampled by 27th seed Kuwait (3-7) in the tournament as well with US$60,000 for the champion pair.

“We had a great time out there,” said Allison. “it has been a while for me and I really enjoyed it. There were some good shots in there but we never got going. We had a nice start to the match and we were never really frozen out but some of the games were a bit awkward. At this stage for me the most important thing is to have fun out there and I really enjoyed it.”

“We are competitors so we are disappointed, of course,” said Kelly. “In the match we never really got the chance to get going, everything fell a bit awkward. Me and Allison are great friends off the table, we gel well together, and we have loved every moment and had fun.”

Full Results:
Round 1 - Afternoon session
Philippines (10th) d. Great Britain B (23rd), 7-3
Round 2 - Afternoon session
Netherlands (4th) d. Finland (13th), 7-1
Slovakia (32nd) d. Czech Republic (16th), 7-6
Round 1 - Evening Session
United States (7th) d. Australia (26th), 7-2
Great Britain C (5th) d. South Africa (28th), 7-5
Great Britain A (2nd) d. Belarus (31st), 7-4

Full Schedule - Day 4 - Round 2
Afternoon session
Russia (9th) vs Japan (8th)
Italy (30th) vs Denmark (19th)
Germany (11th) vs Kuwait (27th)

Evening session
Great Britain C (5th) vs Greece (12th)
Philippines (10th) vs United States (7th)
Great Britain A (2nd) vs Estonia (15th)


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