2008 Guinness 9-Ball Tour: Grand Finals at Mal Taman Anggrek, Jakarta!

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

2008 Guinness 9-Ball Tour: Grand Finals at Mal Taman Anggrek, Jakarta!

To billiards buddies and pool players who wish to know the names of the Filipino pool players who will compete in the grand finals of the 2008 Guinness 9-Ball Tour at Mal Taman Anggrek in Jakarta on October 24 to 26, 2008, this one’s for you! And I kid you not!

Four Filipino pool players will take on seven other Asians in the grand finals of the 2008 Guinness 9-Ball Tour 2008, which touts $36,000 as top prize. They include 2004 World Pool champion Alex Pagulayan, who is also the Singapore leg winner (ranked 4^th in the Tour’s Order of Merit with 165 points); Taipei leg runner-up Joven Bustamante (5^th, 160); Guangzhou champion and Singapore runner-up Dennis Orcollo (seventh, 140) and Genting runner-up Antonio Gabica (ninth, 125).

Three Chinese-Taipei players hold the No. 1 to 3 spots. They are Chang Jung-lin, defending Grand Finals champion (ranked 1^st with 260 points on the strength of consecutive victories in the Taipei, Penang and Genting legs); Yang Ching-shun (190); and Wang Hung Hsiang (180). Other pool players in the Top 10 are Chinese-Taipei’s Wu Chia-ching (sixth, 155), Korea’s Ryu Seung-woo (eighth, 130) and Malaysia’s Ibrahim Bin Amir (10th, 100). Lest I forget, the 11th entry is a wildcard, Ricky Yang - the host country’s top-ranked player.

The top 10 players in the Grand Final have also been awarded slots to the 2009 World 9-Ball championship as the Guinness Tour is the only ranking event in Asia.

Format of the 2008 Guinness 9-Ball Tour grand finals is as follows: 11 players will be divided into 2 groups of 6 and 5; players of each group will play in a single round robin format; the top two players from each group will advance to the semifinals, with the winners meeting in the finals.