Five of six seeded squads including hosts England and 3rd seed China advanced to the Round of 16 in the 2014 World Cup of Pool at the Mountbatten Centre in Portsmouth, England. The one seeded team that failed to advance from the opening round was Chinese-Taipei, which couldn’t avoid the upset axe delivered by Qatar.

England’s Darren Appleton and Karl Boyes, who are seeded fourth and China’s Wang Can and Dang Jinhu , who are seeded sixth in the tournament beat Spain (David Alcaide and Francisco Diaz-Pizarro), 7-6 and Czech Republic (Roman Hybler and Michal Gavenciak), 7-5, respectively.

They join the unheralded Qatar team, 9th seed Poland, 2nd seed Holland and 5th seed United States of America (USA) as the Day 2 winners who will advance to the next round.

The English hosts were in real trouble when the match was on the hill and they came dry on their break. Spain’s Alcaide couldn’t take advantage however with a crucial miss on a an easy four-ball and England ran out the final rack and escaped the upset.

Czech Republic had a similar chance at an upset leading 5-3 after eight games. The Chinese pair showed composure however as they racked four in a row to finish the match at 7-5.

Meanwhile, Taiwan’s pair of Chang Yu-lung and Hsu Kai Lun wasn’t as lucky or good falling to Qatar in a close one, 7-5. Qatar led all the way in pulling off the upset against Chinese-Taipei, which has made the semifinals in the last four instalments of the World Cup of Pool.

Australia’s Phil Reilly and James Georgiadis couldn’t do a Qatar in their match-up against Poland’s Karol Skowerski and Mateusz Sniegocki, who did just enough to pull off the 7-4 victory.

2014 World Cup of Pool Results (Day 2 - Round of 32):

Poland def. Australia, 7-4

China def. Czech Republic, 7-5

Qatar def. Chinese-Taipei, 7-5

Holland def. Sweden, 7-5

USA def. Croatia, 7-2

England def. Spain, 7-6

The second round will feature another race-to-seven affair with the quarterfinals and semifinals at a race-to-nine and the finals at race-to-10. England faces Greece; Poland takes on Finland, USA will prepare for Russia, as China, Qatar and Holland await their opponents in the Round of 16 of the 2014 World Cup of Pool.

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