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Kuo Delights Home Crowd
In front of a packed house at the Kaohsiung Business Exhibition Center, Taipei’s Po-cheng Kuo despatched Rodney Morris of the USA 11-8 to make it an all-Taiwanese final on Sunday night as the 2005 Kaohsiung World Pool Championship reaches his final stages.
Morris, the 34 year-old Hawaiian, gave it a go but made too many errors to stop Kuo, who began to break and run down the home straight when it mattered.
Kuo, 27, looks considerably younger but he played like a seasoned veteran and held his nerve superbly to go one better than last year's semi-final placing and maintain his 100 percent winning record in this year's tournament.
He now faces 16 year-old Chia-ching Wu in the race to 17 final and it will be the first time that a home player will take this title in the five times it has been staged in Taiwan.
Both players shared the early racks but it was Morris who gained the initiative as he edged a two rack lead in the middle stages of the game.
Kuo dug deep though and levelled it up at 7–7 and then turned up the heat on Morris as he strung three racks together to get to the hill.
Morris came back at him and at 10–8 to Kuo, he had a chance to pull another back. He ran out of position going from the 5 ball to the 7 and missed the pot into the top pocket.
From there, Kuo cleared the three remaining balls to seal a spot in the final.
Afterwards the 2004 bronze medallist was delighted with his performance: “It was a hard game but I am so happy to get to the final after losing at this stage last year. It’s my girlfriends birthday tomorrow and I want to give her the best present.”
Kuo is guaranteed at least $35,000 tomorrow while Morris can console himself with a cheque for $20,000.
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