Italy's World Cup of Pool run ends in tears
CHINA, the 2007 World Cup of Pool winners, reached the last four of the 2008 event as they defeated Italy in the first of the quarter-finals on Saturday afternoon.
Li He-wen and Fu Jian-bo won 9-2 as a number of unforced errors from Italy helped the number one seeds China.
Italian Fabio Petroni was guilty of making two costly errors in the later stages of the match and the occasion got to the tearful emotional player.
The Italians had been in fine form in the early stages of the tournament as they beat Peru 8-4 and then thrashed Korea 8-0, only the fourth whitewash in World Cup history.
China, on the other hand, had to battle through two tricky opponents as they had secured an 8-6 win over India and then an 8-7 success over Switzerland.
Italy took the lead after Fu Jian-bo had missed the 6-ball, but the match soon turned on its head as China took control.
A 2-9 combination from Fu made it 2-1 before Italy were rooted to their seats as the scoreline quickly moved over to 4-1.
Italy were underperforming in this match as Petroni missed a long 2-ball and that mistake was punished for 5-1. Fu missed the 1-ball in the next and Italy claimed their second rack.
Both sides were struggling with their break and a 3-6 combination from Li, a former World Pool Championship semi-finalist, made it 6-2.
Petroni missed the 8-ball in two succesive racks and both times it cost his side as the score quickly moved to 8-2 with China ruthlessly punishing any mistake from the Europeans.
The situation was getting to Petroni as he looked tearful at the costly errors as he knew his side were heading out of the competition.
China won the next rack to seal the victory by 9-2 and will now meet either England or Germany in the semi-final.
