Corteza, Lining in semis of World Ten Ball tilt

Three grueling matches in a span of six-and-a-half hours and 49 tightly-fought racks. Yet, the bruising phases didn’t take their toll on Lee Van Corteza.

Pushed to the wall in his tense quarterfinals showdown with Chinese rival Li Hewen, Corteza squeezed the remaining juices left in him to eke out a hard-earned 9-7 victory and moved into the Final Four of the World Ten Ball Championship Sunday night at the World Trade Center. Minutes after Corteza’s win, another Filipino, Antonio Lining, barged into the semifinal round by edging compatriot Warren Kiamco in a hill-hill encounter, 9-8. The two Filipinos will face separate foreign rivals in the semifinal round Monday bidding for spots in the race-to-11 final round which would be played on the same day. All four semifinalists are guaranteed of $15,000. In the semifinal round, Corteza will take on David Alcaide of Spain, who pulled off a king-sized 9-7 upset victory over Darren Appleton to dethrone the British ace. Lining will meet Mika Immonen of Finland, the hottest player in the international billiard circuit. Reigning UP Open titlist Immonen defeated Ruslan Chinakhov of Russia, 9-6, to become the first semifinalist in the tournament organized by Raya Sports and sanctioned by the World Pool-Billiard Association. It was a tough win both for Corteza and Lining. Corteza saw his 7-4 lead over Li wiped out quickly by a spirited charge by the Chinese cue artist. The score was tied at 7-all when Li had a dry break. The Filipino then had a chance to win it outright but missed the No.2 ball. Then Li was about to take charge only to miss an important ball – the orange No.5 ball at the corner. The ball No.5, however, was well-covered by another ball and Corteza had to make a jump shot to sink the ball to the corner. The pride of Davao City did just that to the delight of the boisterous crowd, some of whom came all the way from Bacolod to watch their favorite player. Corteza then had a good break in the 16th and cleaned up the table. Lining also came on the brink of elimination. He was trailing 6-8 and had to win the remaining three racks to boost his bid for an ambitious first-ever world title. - GMANews.TV