Rodolfo Luat (Phi) bt Ching Shun Yang (Tai) 11 - 6
 
Rodolfo Luat, the only Filipino left in the tournament, became the first player through to the Quarter Finals of the Victor Chandler World Pool Championship here at the Cardiff International Arena in Wales as he put out Ching Shun Yang of Chinese Taipei 11 - 6.
Luat raced to a 5 - 0 lead  but Yang came back at him but missed the 8-ball in a clearance  to go 5 - 6. After that mini comeback it was all Luat and he eventually ran out a 11 - 6 winner to book himself a place in the last eight.  Boy Samson will face either Earl Strickland or Akikumo Toshikawa on the main television table tomorrow.

Commented Luat, " It was not an easy match as he missed only a couple of balls but I played well. I don't really care who I play next as I've played both Strickland and Toshikawa before and lost and won against both of them.

" It is very sad that Francisco, Leonardo, Warren and Efren are out but we are a team and if I win then we all win. I feel some pressure that the people of the Philippines want me to  win but the whole country will be behind me so I will be doing my very best for them.

" I've won big tournaments before so I hope I can win this one and I would like to thank the Filipino people and Puyet Sports for all their support."

Fong Pang Chao (Tai) bt Oliver Ortmann (Ger) 11 - 9
Peter Nielsen (Den) bt Allen Hopkins (USA) 11 - 8

Fong Pang Chao, the number one player from Chinese Taipei, was embroiled in
a cheat row with referee Alan Chamberlain during his last 16 clash with German star Oliver Ortmann at the Cardiff International Arena this afternoon.

With a place in the quarter-final of the Victor Chandler World Championship for the winner, the stakes were high. Chao lead Ortmann 7 - 6 but the 1995 World Champion had a relatively easy long pot on the 6-ball in the 14th rack but as Ortmann went to shoot, the Taipei star, sitting directly in Oliver's eyeline seemed to deliberately move his head.

Ortmann missed the pot and complained bitterly to ref Alan Chamberlain, who gave the 'Cold Faced Killer' from Taipei a stern warning via the translator.

The whole incident did nothing for Ortmann's confidence and although he gave Chao a run for his money, he could never get enough momentum going to run out sufficient racks to win.

Ismael Paez (Mex) bt Alex Pagulayan (Can) 11 - 8
Johl Younger (Aust) bt Mika Immonen (Fin) 11 - 7

Johl Younger, a 22 year-old professional card counter from Melbourne, Australia caused another big upset in the Victor Chandler World Pool Championship as he put top European star Mike Immonen out of the tournament with a emphatic 11-7 victory at the Cardiff International Arena tonight.

Younger, who is an absolute unknown on the world pool scene added Mika scalp to those of  Leonardo Andam, Tony Drago, Edwin Montal and Raj Hundal, who he beat in the group stages. Johl went on to take out Dominic Dale and Young Hwa Jeong in the knock-out stages and can look forward to a TV table show-down with Fong Pang Chao (Taiwan) tomorrow (Saturday).

Johl plays exclusively in Australia and was a semi-finalist in the World Under-18 9-Ball Championship in the late 90's. He has also been a runner-up in the Australian 9-Ball Championship.

Younger's appearance in the Quarter-Finals guarantees him $7.500 ( approx £5.000 )

Steve Davis (Eng) bt Kunihiko Takahashi (Jap) 11 - 6

Steve Davis, the 42 year-old former six-times World Snooker Champion, marches on in the 2000 Victor Chandler World Pool Championship at the Cardiff International Arena.
After putting out defending champion Efren Reyes of the Philippines in the last 64, then European No 1 Ralf Souquet ( Germany ) in the last 32, tonight he gave 1998 World Champion Kunihiko Takahashi of Japan a battering, winning 11 racks to  6.
Takahashi, who on pool class and form was the betting favourite, seemed over-whelmed by the crowd and by the fact he was playing a man who seemed absolutely fearless in his previous two matches.
Davis lead all the way, going 4 - 0 up to the obvious delight of a sell-out Welsh crowd as he played with the composure of a man who had been playing top-level pool all his life.
Romford Slim then lead 5 - 2, 7 - 3, 9 - 4, 9 - 5 ,10 - 5 and 10 - 6 before manoeuvring himself brilliantly into a 3-ball 9-ball combination shot to get him into the Quarter Finals and a match against young American Corey Deuel.

Davis was in a jubilant mood after his match, " That was a totally different game to the other two. There was a fair bit of luck and a few mistakes and we bothed looked a bit twitchy at times.

" To be fair to myself, he played an awful game. He missed a lot of shots and his breaking was bad. In fact, I got more balls down off the break than he did and that's saying something.

" When you look at his match against Steve Knight, he ran nine racks on the spin so you could say he didn't do himself justice this evening.

" It's a different game when you lead from the front. You don't panic but a little bit of anxiety comes into it as you near the finishing line.

" My safety game was very good though and my all-round knowledge of the table is coming along.

" I can't believe I've got this far. It's ruining my golf game as I keep booking morning rounds but the pool success keeps interfering!"

send by luke.riches