Corteza advances; Orcollo out

MANILA, Philippines - Lee Vann Corteza, Carlo Biado and Roberto Gomez toppled their respective rivals to move into the Last 32 of the World 8-Ball Championship but world No. 1 and defending champion Dennis Orcollo was ambushed in a big upset in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates yesterday.

Corteza, the two-time National Open champion, dismantled Lee Chen Man of Hong Kong, 9-2, to arrange a duel with Vietnamese Nguyen Phoc Luong, who nipped local bet Amin Fekry, 9-8.

Biado, on the other hand, ousted compatriot Elmer Haya, 9-2, while the Zamboanga City ace Gomez demolished Mario He of Austria, 9-4.

Biado goes for a Last 16 berth against Toru Kuribayashi of Japan, who bundled out Tomasz Kaplan of Poland, 9-7, while Gomez will face Mark Gray of Great Britain, who crushed Maghsoud Ali of Iran, 9-3.

Orcollo, however, failed to live up to the hype as he dropped a harrowing 3-9 loss to Karol Skowerski of Poland in the knockout phase of the event which offers $20,000 to the winner.

Orcollo earlier whipped Nasser Al Mujaibel of Kuwait, 9-5, in the Last 64 but failed to sustain his form and bowed out of the title race earlier than expected.

Skowerski, 28, swept the first five racks to beat Orcollo in the alternate break format, race-to-9 duel. He never gave the Filipino champion any room for a comeback, coming through with superb pocketing to advance.

Ko Pin-yi of Taiwan bested Raymund Faraon, 9-5, while Joven Alba, Demosthenes Pulpul and Elvis Calasang also fell by the wayside. Alba bowed to Ahmad Jallad of Jordan, 9-8, Pulpul also dropped a sorry 8-9 decision to Young Hwa of Korea, while Calasang succumbed to Yukio Akagariyama of Japan, 2-9.