Top and higher seeds Philippines (no. 1), Finland (no. 8) and Greece (no. 13) took care of business in the Round of 32 of the 2014 World Cup of Pool beating separate opponents on opening day of the tournament held at the Mountbatten Centre in Portsmouth, England.

Two other seeded countries— Italy (no. 16) and Japan (no. 12) weren’t as successful and suffered the upsets on the first day of the pool championships which offers a prize pool of $250,000.

The first round consists of race-to-seven matches on a knockout format with the losers going home while the winners advance to the Round of 16 where the competitors play in another race-to-seven affair.

The first match of the tournament saw Greece featuring Nikos Ekonomopoulos and Alexander Kazakis in a nip-and-tuck affair against Indonesians Irsal Nasution and Muhammad Zulfikri. The match was on the hill and Indonesia had a chance to win the game but an error on the 5-ball gave the rack and the match, 7-6 to the Greek, who will face the winner of the Spain vs. England match in the next round.

Meanwhile, France pulled off the minor upset against France, 7-4 in their Round of 32 match-up. France was seeded 16th in the tournament but had multiple errors in the early and middle racks that proved costly for the Italians.

The French pair of Stephan Cohen and Alex Montpelier faces defending world champions Dennis Orcollo and Lee Vann Corteza of the Philippines in the next round. The Filipinos nipped a fighting Chile pair of Alejandro Carvajal and Enrique Rojas in their own opening match.

Also winning on Day 1 are Mika Immonen and Petri Makkonen of Finland, the 2012 World Cup of Pool champions as the Finnish duo embarrassed the team from Korea ((Jeong Yung Hwa and Ha Minu), 7-0.

2014 World Cup of Pool Results (Day 1 - Round of 32):

Greece def. Indonesia, 7-6

France def. Italy, 7-4

Austria def. Portugal, 7-2

Russia def. Japan, 7-6

Finland def. Korea, 7-0

Philippines def. Chile, 7-5

Round of 32 action in the 2014 World Cup of Pool continues on Wednesday (Sept. 24). Australia opens their campaign against ninth seed Poland and China takes on a dangerous Czech Republic squad. Four other matches-- Chinese Taipei vs. Qatar; Holland vs. Sweden; USA vs. Croatia; and England vs. Spain are also on tap in Day 2 of the world pool championships.

RELATED STORIES