Italian Billiards Team Turns On The Magic

Italian Billiards Team Turns On The MagicThe Italian billiard team produced one of the most oustanding performances of the PartyPoker.com World Cup of Pool to thrash seventh seeds Finland 9-2.The Italian pairing of Angelo Millauro and Fabio Petroni, who are seeded tenth, barely put a foot wrong as they cruised into the quarter-finals where they will meet either Vietnam or Holland.Who do you think will win? Discuss World Cup of Pool here. A delighted Petroni said: “We played great and we’re so happy. It’s the way to win but we got lucky on the breaks as Finland never had a chance to run out.
"We will do our best in the next round and see what happens but both Vietnam and the Netherlands are strong teams.”Italy won the lag and made no mistakes in the first rack as Petroni potted the 9-ball for a 1-0 lead.The Italians had looked impressive in the opening round in a 9-2 victory against South Africa and were continuing their good form as they took the next two racks to stun Finland and gain a 3-0 advantage.Mika Immonen, a former 9-ball World Champion, handed Italy another chance in the next rack as he missed the pink four into the top left hand pocket as the Italians came back to the table and ruthlessly moved 4-0 ahead.In the first match the Italians looked stylish in matching white shirts and now, in their black and red kits, were producing another dazzling performance in front of the TV cameras. Petroni and Millauro were clearly enjoying themselves and they had every reason to be smiling as it soon became 5-0.Immonen is regarded as one of the finest players in the world but was having an evening to forget as his side looked to be heading towards a heavy, embarrassing defeat.His poor form continued in the sixth rack when he overcut an attempt to slide the two down the rail to give Italy another opportunity to extend their lead in this race to nine match.Both the Italians were playing well as Millauro did well to fine-cut the green six into the top right and it looked like becoming 6-0. Millauro made his first mistake of the match when he failed to pocket the black eight but that error went unpunished as Markus Juva missed the same ball.However, there was another twist to this rack as Millauro then missed the nine to give Immonen a simple shot as Finland finally got on the scoreboard.But the fightback did not last long as Italy won the seventh and Juva gift-wrapped the eighth when he left the orange five hanging over the pocket as the Italians moved to within two of victory.The match threatened to get nasty when referee Michaela Tabb had to speak to Petroni after Juva had complained that the Italian had tried to put him off by talking to his teammate, but the issue was quickly sorted out and no further action was taken.Petroni later explained what happened. He said: “I was talking with Angelo and I don’t think I disturbed Markus and he can understand I didn’t do it on purpose. He should have said ‘Fabio, please’ but he talked to the referee instead.”Back on the table, a fortunate bank shot on the blue two put Italy in charge of the ninth rack as they moved to the hill and in sight of the last eight. The Finland pair restored some pride by winning the tenth but a 1-9 carom from Petroni seconds later ended the match and completed a fine win for Italy. Visit Inside POOL Magazine for the latest news from the sport of billiards and pool.

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