Hong Kong Records a Memorable Upset at the World Cup of Pool

Hong Kong Records a Memorable Upset at the World Cup of PoolPool and Billiards NewsHONG Kong billiards team produced a heroic performance to stun sixth seeds Sweden in the biggest shock so far of the PartyPoker.com World Cup of Pool billiard tournament. Sweden, whose side consisted of former World Championship finalist Tom Storm and former World Championship semi-finalist Marcus Chamat, had been 4-1, 6-2 and 8-5 ahead in the race to nine.Who do you think will win? Discuss World Cup of Pool here. But the Hong Kong pairing of Lee Chenman and Kong Man-Ho showed their character to win the last four racks to secure a place in the last 16 where they will now face 11th seeds Russia on Friday afternoon. A delighted Chenman said: “All through the match we were thinking ‘stay strong’ and when we went to 8-7 down I really thought we could win it.
“We were a bit nervous in the early stages as we weren’t really used to that type of set up and arena. Tom and Marcus have been playing under these type of conditions for years so I knew it would take a little time to adjust. “When we went 4-1 down the pressure was off a bit and we knew we had nothing to lose. We were 2/1 to win the match with the bookmakers and the fact that no-one fancied us to win made it all the more satisfying. I think you could say we’re very happy with the result!” A distraught Chamat said, “We gave that away because we should have won it. We made a couple of mistakes and they became more comfortable but in 9 ball if you don’t take advantage of your chances you can lose.”The turning point came when the score was 8-5 in Sweden ’s favour and they were only four shots from victory but Storm failed to pot a relatively simple-looking green six. Hong Kong had made a poor start when Chenman scratched on the lag and Sweden took full advantage to take the opening rack. But Hong Kong leveled it in the second although the third went with break to restore the Swede’s lead. A scratch by Kong, kicking out of a snooker, gave ball in hand to the Swedes who cleared the remaining four balls to increase their lead to 3-1. Another mistake from Hong Kong, this time from Chenman, as he scratched trying to cut the 1 ball into the centre pocket, gave ball in once again to Sweden and Storm and Chamat comfortably cleared to go 4-1. Sweden turned on the style to move 6-2 ahead but Hong Kong kept their hopes alive by winning the next two to pull it back to 6-4. Storm produced a fine long pot on the eighth and was immediately praised by presenter Jim Wych for “the shot of the tournament so far” to help extend the lead to 7-4. Each side took one of the next two and it looked game over as Sweden ran through the balls until Storm missed the green, it what would become the turning point of the match. Chenman held his nerve to pot the decisive ball in the next two racks before Hong Kong ran out the next to take it to double hill. Sweden had the advantage in the last rack but lost position and that enabled Hong Kong to record a memorable victory.

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