Orcollo-Corteza rips Croatian duo

Filipino cue masters Dennis “Robocop” Orcollo and Lee Vann “The Slayer” Corteza opened their bid in the 888.com World Cup of Pool 2013 on a sizzling note after the Filipino duo beat the tandem of Ivica Putnik and Karlo Dalmatin of Croatia, 7-4, late Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila).

The tough event is being held at the York Hall, in Bethnal Green in London, United Kingdom.

The Philippines will next meet either Poland or Singapore.

Poland, made up of Karol Skowerski and Woijciech Szewcyk will open against Aloysius Yapp and Chang Keng Kwang of Singapore. Poland was last year’s losing finalist when it was represented by Tomas Kaplan and Radoslaw Babica.

The No.6 seed Pinoys took a commanding 5-2 lead before Putnik and Dalmatin tallied one rack to close in at 5-3. However, the Philippines reach the hill at 6-3 and allowed Croatia just one more rack before closing the match on the 11th frame for the 7-4 tally.

Orcullo and Corteza first teamed up in last year’s World Cup of Pool where they were beaten by Switzerland’s Dimitri Jungo and Fil-Swiss Ronnie Regli in the first round when the event was held at the Robinson’s Place Manila.

Last year’s champion, Mika Immonen and Petri Makkonen of Finland, also made it to the next round by subduing the Austrian pair of Jasmin Ouschan and her brother Albin, 7-2. They are the first siblings team in the competition since Ko Pin Yi and Ko Ping Chung of Chinese Taipei reached the semifinals two years ago.

The winning team will receive US$60,000 out of the US$250,000 prize purse. In other results, Germany beat Malta, South Korea nipped Estonia and the Netherlands blasted Scotland.