World takes 2004 Team Cup

The World All Star Team has won the 2004 World Stars Invitational Team Cup. In a clash of the top players from Chinese Taipei vs top players from the rest of the world, the World Team had to fight off a late charge from their opponents but held on for the win.

Day one started with doubles matches and the World Team won each of these close matches. First, it was Alex Pagulayan & Kunihiko Takahashi scoring a 9-7 win over Fong-Pang Chao & Hsiao-Lang Fang. This was followed by Mika Immonnen & Rodney Morris with a hill-hill win over Hao-Ping Chang & Ching-Shun Yang. Earl Strickland & Ralf Souquet kept the World Team on the winning side with a 9-6 win over Chin-ching Kang & Hui-Kai Hsia. This left the team of Kun-Fang Lee & Che-Wei Fu with the daunting task of facing Efren Reyes & Francisco Bustamante in an attempt to the get the Chinese Taipei team on the scoreboard. It was not to be, as Reyes and Bustamante won 9-7.

Day two was a different story altogether, as the team from Chinese Taipei started with wins by Hui-Kai Hsia, Kun-Fang Lee and Che-Wei Fu to bring the score back to 4-3. Then it was the World Team's turn as Kunihiko Takahashi and Francisco Bustamante won their matches to push the World lead back to 6-3. The next two matches were split as Ching-Shun Yang defeated Efren Reyes 7-5 and Ralf Souquet defeated Chin-ching Kang 7-6. The final match of the day went to Chinese Taipei with Fong-Pang Chao defeating Earl Strickland 7-3 and leaving the Chinese Taipei team trailing 7-5.

Day three started with the World Team stretching their lead to 9-5 behind wins by Souquet and Rodney Morris. The Chinese Taipei team made their last run with back to back wins from Ching-Shun Yang and Chin-Ching Kang to bring them back to 9-7, but the final four matches were won by the World Team to earn them a 13-7 final score.

The winning team collected $10,000 with every player earning $2000 per match won and $1000 per match lost.