From ESPN Star: Jundel Mazon staged a comeback victory against Irsal Nasution to win the inaugural Guinness World Series of Pool crown. It looks like the Philippines' newest billiard sensation has arrived.
Jundel Mazon, a relatively unknown cue artist hailing from Manila broke the hearts of the Indonesians after delivering a stunning come-from-behind victory against local bet Irsal Nasution in their race to 10 finals encounter to claim the first ever 2010 Guinness World Series of Pool Championship crown here at Mal Taman Anggrek Jakarta Indonesia, 10 - 5.
Fully supported by the capacity crowd, it was actually Nasution who
took control of the match first, capitalizing on a missed bank shot on
the green 6ball from Mazon to score first blood. In the 3rd rack, a
noticeably sharper and calmer Nasution further stepped up his game to
notch four unanswered racks to own an overwhelming advantage, 5 - 1.
With
such a lopsided score and home-court advantage against him, nobody
thought Mazon stood a chance. But a proven performer under pressure, the
Filipino began to heat things up with some supreme safety shots and
rail escapes to have his opponent second guessing his shots.
It
was at this stage of the match that inexperience came into play. Never
having the chance to experience the intense playing conditions of
international competition, Nasutial's successful aggressive offensive
play early on was replaced by weak safety shots and pot attempts.
In contrast, Mazon who has participated in tournaments overseas had a better time handling the pressure and continued relentlessly to chip away at his rival's lead.
With Nasutial unraveled, Mazon was able to string an amazing 8 rack
romp to overtake and ultimately win the championship and pocket the
USD40,000.00 top prize. For his admirable efforts Nasution gets
US$10,000.00
"I could not have hoped for a better result. For
sure, it was a difficult uphill battle but I was able to regain my
composure in the middle stages of the match. From there, I was on a roll
and it was then that I knew I had a chance. So I just kept on pushing
until the very end. After this extremely grueling competition, I plan on
going home, probably relax for a month or two before going overseas
again to compete in the 2010 US Open championship." Said Mazon.
The
two relatively unknown combatants actually surprised everyone with
their incredible play all throughout the four day tournament organized
by ESPN STAR Sports.
The Filipino defeated a number of pool heavyweights such as England's
Darren Appleton, 8 - 6 in the semifinals and Japan's top-seed Naoyuki
Oi, 8 - 6 in the quarters to barge into the final round.
Not to
be outdone, Nasution, also took down a number of top cue masters on his
road to the finals with victories versus 2004 WPA World 9ball Champion
Alex Pagulayan, 8 - 4, former double world Champion Ronato Alcano, 8 -
5, and 2007 Guinness 9ball Tour Grand Champion Chang-Jung Lin to book
his finals encounter with the Filipino.
For full results, visit www.espnstar.com


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