Locals make early exit in 9-ball event

Locals make early exit in 9-ball event

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Despite hope of a much-needed home advantage, all four local
entries lost on Friday in the second stop of the San Miguel Asian
9-ball Tour.

In the first round, Yudarman Kamaruddin gave his best but was
edged 7-9 by Chao Fong Fang, the 1993 World 9-ball champion,
while compatriots Robby Suarly, Muhammad Zulfikri and Muhamad
Junarto made it past the first hurdle.

Robby defeated Nguyen Than Nam of Vietnam 9-6, Zulfikri
dispatched Ibrahim Bin Amir of Malaysia 9-6 and Junarto won 9-7
over Manan Chandra of India.

Despite Yudarman's loss, Indonesian Billiards and Snooker
Association (POBSI) chairman Putera Astaman praised his effort.

"He played well as he could tie Chao 7-7 before finally losing
7-9. Yudarman lost with honor," Putera said.

In the second round, Junarto lost 5-9 to Yang Chin-Shun of
Chinese Taipei, Zulfikri was defeated 8-9 by Singaporean Toh
Lian-Han and Robby surrendered 8-9 to the Efren Reyes, the
three-time 8-ball champion from the Philippines.

Yang easily took an 8-2 lead against Junarto, before the
latter closed the gap to 8-5. Yang then overcame his nerves to
win.

In an error-filled, seesaw contest, Toh raced to a 6-2 lead,
but suddenly lost his rhythm and allowed Zulfikri to catch him at
5-6.

Zulfikri failed in a golden opportunity to put the third ball
in during frame 12, thus giving Toh a chance to pull away 7-5.

The Indonesian made another blunder in frame 13 by pocketing
the white ball.

But Zulfikri refused to go meekly and gained the advantage
when Toh also erred by pocketed the white ball in frame 14.

Toh seemed poised to win in frame 15, but somehow missed a
gimme shot, with the eight ball smack in front of the hole.

Zulfikri took the chance to reach 7-8, and then leveled. The
end was anticlimactic after the Zulkifri fightback, as the local
player missed his first shot and set up a simple putaway for Toh
with the nine ball.

"In the last frame, I just didn't see that the nine ball was
in front of the first ball, I was too nervous," Zulfikri said.

Toh said Zulfikri played well and he thought the contest was
over following his mistake in frame 15.

Meanwhile, Robby, despite holding an 8-7 lead against Reyes,
could not seal victory.

In other second round matches, Kuo Po-Cheng of Chinese Taipei
sent home Alok Kumar of India 9-4, Wanshana Poomjaeng defeated Xu
Meng of China 9-5, teenage wonder boy Wu Chia-Ching of Chinese
Taipei thrashed Pang 9-5, Satoshi Kawabata of Japan beat Li He-
Wen and Singapore first leg champion Gandy Valle of the
Philippines eked out a 9-8 win over compatriot Francisco
Bustamante.

On Saturday, it will be Reyes versus Kuo, Poomjaeng against
Wu, Toh taking on Kawabata and Yang facing Valle, with matches
starting at 10 a.m. at the Hanggar Billiard on Jl. Gatot
Soebroto, Central Jakarta.