Easy for Italy as they whitewash poor Korea
ITALY secured only the fourth whitewash in World Cup of Pool history as they destroyed Korea 8-0.
A succession of bad shots and a dose of bad luck contributed to Korea exiting the tournament as Italy booked a quarter-final spot with China.
Korea had produced one of the performances of the first round as they eliminated last year's runner-up Finland.
But Kim Woong-dae and Jeong Young-hwa could not recapture that form in the early stages of their last 16 match against Italy.
The Italian side, consisting of Fabio Petroni and Bruno Muratore, raced to a 5-0 lead, aided by a number of poor shots and misjudgements from the Koreans.
Korea came up with a dry break and then did not get another shot until the third rack as Italy moved two ahead with an error-free opening.
The Asians got to the table in the third but made no impact as Jeong missed an attempted 1-9 carom before Kim dogged a simple-looking 8-ball into the side pocket for 3-0. Italy had made two mistakes in the rack but still won the rack.
Jeong was struggling and missed a straight-forward 7-ball down the side rail and it was 4-0 before Italy ran out the fifth to extend the advantage further.
Despite a dry break and Korea having a number of opportunities the score then ticked over to 6-0. However, for the first time Korea had been unlucky, instead of playing poorly in a rack.
A good break from Muratore left Italy with a shot on the 1-ball and it was 7-0. Italy also had a shot on the 1-ball in the next but Muratore missed the pink 4 to give Korea another chance. They could not capitalise as Kim failed with a 4-9 carom and the match was over 8-0.
