Champ Orcollo bows out of Qatar pool

Dennis Orcollo failed in his title defense bid bombing out of the 2009 Qatar International 9-ball Pool Championship at the Qatar Billiards and Snooker Federation in Doha, Qatar after absorbing his second consecutive defeat.

Orcollo, who was relegated to the loser’s bracket by unheralded compatriot Francisco Felicilda last Thursday via a 9-7 win, absorbed another stinging setback on Friday, this time a 9-5 loss against Mateusz Sniegocki of Poland that ended his title-retention campaign.

With Orcollo out of contention and other Philippine campaigners suffering initial defeats, Cebuano Israel “Amay" Rota and Alan Cuartero of Surigao remain as the only unbeaten Filipinos.

Rota downed Christoph Reintjens of Germany, 9-5, while Cuartero blanked Khalid Sibaitah of UAE, 9-0, in the tournament which offers $40,000 to the titlist.

The other Filipinos who lost their second day matches were Marlon “Marvelous" Manalo who bowed to Radoslaw Babica of Poland, 9-8; Antonio “Ga-Ga" Gabica who lost to Mika Immonen of Finland, 9-4; Raymund Faraon who suffered a 9-7 setback at the hands of Kuo Po Cheng of Chinese-Taipei; and Oliver Medinilla who absorbed a 9-4 defeat against Vilmos Foldes of Hungrary, 9-4.

While Filipino campaigners were sent reeling down to the loser’s bracket, Jeffrey de Luna bounced back in contention with a 9-1 mastery over Nayef A.A. Mohammad of Jordan.

A “double elimination" will determine the last 32 combatants with four consecutive wins ensuring the competitor a spot in the money round while two straight defeats will eliminate any competitor in the tournament.