2013 World Cup of Pool Day 2 Results – Hungary Ousts China, Delivers First Major Upset!
The first major upset of the 2013 World Cup of Pool in London happened on Wednesday as Hungary dominated 2-time champions China in the second day of competitions at York Hall in East London.
The Hungarian pair of Gabor Solymosi and Mikos Balazs surprisingly dominated the Chinese duo of Li Hewen and Lio Haitao, 7-2.
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The win served as warning to the rest of the field that no favoured team is safe, especially with the do-or-die format of the tournament with a $250,000 prize pool.
Solymosi and Balazs took advantage of the winners break format early and racked up five games in a row to start the match.
Team Hungary, which qualified via the backdoor in the European qualifiers, never looked back and held on to the lead and the win to advance to the Round of 16.
Li’s dream of a third World Cup title will have to wait until 2014. The Chinese pool superstar was part of the champion teams in the 2007 and 2010 editions of the World Cup of Pool but gets rudely booted out in the first round this year even as the Chinese pair was seeded 3rd overall among the 32 competitors.
In the next round, Hungary will meet Russia’s Konstantin Stepanov and Ruslan Chinakhov, who defeated Lee Chenman and Kong Bu Hong of Hong Kong, 7-5.
In other games that can be considered minor upsets, Singapore downed 11th seed Poland, 7-5 and India edged 12th seed Canada in a thrilling hill-hill match.
2013 World Cup of Pool - Round of 32 Scores (Day 2)
(Seeds in parenthesis)
Japan (13) def. Sweden, 7-4
Hungary def. China (3), 7-2
Russia (14) def. Hong Kong, 7-5
USA (4) def. Kuwait, 7-4
Singapore def. Poland (11), 7-5
India vs. Canada (12), 7-6