China Pounding Many Giants

International competitions have not been kind of late to many of the western pool stars. The China Open is proving no exception to the rule. Included in the names that will not be appearing in the final 32 are Daryl Peach, who lost to Chei Wei Fu and Jianbo Fu and Oliver Ortmann who lost to Mika Immonen and then to Haitao Liu (although that may have been a forfeit as the score was listed as 9-0).

Karl Boyes is probably regretting a shot or two. He lost two consecutive hill-hill matches to end his run. First to Can Wang and then to Thorsten Hohmann. And Charlie WIlliams is also out after losing to Kai Lun Hsu, then beating Siauw Wieto before losing his last one to Luong Chi Dung.

Finally, Jason Klatt is out after losing to Ralf Souquet and Wei Liu and Johnny Archer joins him on the sidelines. Archer's week started out well with a 9-2 pounding of Francisco Bustamante, but then the fates turned nasty as he lost first to Yong Huang and then to Wei Liu.

Not all of the westerners have fallen. Corey Deuel took down both Kenichi Uchigaki and Niels Feijen to make it through and Feijen survived the one-loss side to continue to the round of 32. Mika Immonen and Chris Melling are both through, though Mika must be skinned up a bit after surviving two hill-hill conflicts against Oliver Ortmann and Jun Lin Chang.

Scott Higgins is in after trouncing none other than Efren Reyes 9-3 and sending the great magician to the stands. Shane Van Boening has not stumbled a bit. He is in after winning his two matches against Rong Chin Nien and Chi Ho Kwok. And Thorsten Hohmann still stands. He lost his first match to Pin-Yi Ko but then beat both Xihe Zhu and Karl Boyes to make it through.

Darren Appleton is also doing very well. He won his two matches against Gun Jae Lee and Luong Chi Dung to move into the final group. And the always steadfast Ralf Souquet is into the final rounds after beating Jason Klatt, losing to Yulong Zhang and then ruining the day and ending the tournament for Francisco Bustamante 9-5.

Now we await the draw for the round of 32. This will be single-elimination so every match will be crucial. The ladies division is still contesting their group stages and we will fill you in on the results as soon as they are available. Live scoring and brackets are available at http://www.wpa-pool.com