Philippine Open Unveils Stellar Field

Stellar Cast in Philippine Open (Clockwise from top left): Souquet, Ouschan, Corr, Fischer, Manalo, Chamat, Ko, Appleton, Van Boening



The inaugural Philippine Open Pool Championship unveiled at a press conference today (Tuesday, May 26) a stellar field of world champions and national champions, who will contend starting tomorrow, May 27, for the title of Philippine Open champion and the top prize of $20,000.

Raya Sports, organizer of the tournament, presented some of the top foreign and Filipino participants during a press conference held at the press center of SM Megamall, the venue for the tournament.

Ralf Souquet of Germany, currently ranked No. 1 by the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA), has been seeded first in the tournament.

The other top seeds are: Darren Appleton, Great Britain (2), Mika Immonen, Finland (3), Ko Pin-Yi, Chinese Taipei (4), Fu Che-Wei, Taipei (5), Marcus Chamat, Sweden (6), Jerico Banares, Philippines (7)

Karen Corr of Ireland was tagged as the highest seeded female player at No. 15.

The three reigning world champions who are in the field are Souquet (2008 world 8-ball champion), Appleton (2008 world 10-ball champion), and Ko Pin-Yi (2007 and 2008 world junior 9-ball champion).

Among the national champions presented to the media were:
Ricky Young of Indonesia, Amir Ibrahim of Malaysia, Fu Jian-Bo of China, Satoshi Kawabata of Japan, and Marlon Manalo of the Philippines.