FORMER World Junior champion Ko Pin-Yi of Taiwan defeated tournament top-seed and World No. 1 Dennis Orcollo in their 2011 Guinness World Series Of Pool 10-ball Championship semifinals clash, 8-6, at the Mall Taman Anggrek in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Opening the contest with a 3-0 score highlighted by two break and run outs, the Taiwanese seemed focused on completing an upset early on. Ko held a 4-1 advantage at one point but Orcollo clawed back into to even things up at 4 racks each.
That turned out to be the last hurrah for the Filipino as the Taiwanese finished him off with his textbook form for an 8-6 win that resulted to a seat in the finals.
“I just kept cool and kept believing I had a chance,” said Ko. “I am very fortunate that luck was on my side the whole week and I am extremely happy with my game right now.”
With his huge win, Ko will face the winner of the match between Irsal Nasution (INA) and 2007 US Open 9-Ball Champion Shane Van Boening (USA).
At stake in this tournament is the $41,000 top prize. /Correspondent Marlon Bernardino