A valiant effort was not enough for Taiwan's Yang Ching-shun, who was a beaten semifinalist at the 2002 World Pool Championships in Cardiff, England -- won by Earl Strickland from the US.
"Earl the Pearl" beat Filipino ace Francisco Bustamante on Sunday at the Cardiff International Arena in a 17-15 grudge-match thriller.
PHOTO: AP
At a recent world challenge event in Manila, Strickland had taken a shot at Bustamante for losing to Kunihiko Takahashi in the semifinal.
Bustamante, who is considered a popular and polite pool tour pro, was reportedly told what the US player had said and replied, "You can write it. Strickland's a bad guy, he's an animal.
"His fellow Americans don't even like him. He should show respect and I'll hit him with a cue stick if he doesn't stop talking."
But Bustamante, who lost his eight-month-old daughter Mariel late last week, was unable to overturn the fiery American in the final.
Strickland, the 41-year-old self-styled bad boy on the pool tour, had won the championship on two previous occasions and is a five-time US Open champion. His prize was the winner's check for US$65,000.
Yang -- with his trademark smooth cueing action -- whipped former two-time champion Johnny Archer from the US in the quarterfinals 11-2.
The Kaohsiung player took the first two games and then went 4-1 up. Archer managed to pull one more back, but then made an error, after which Yang reeled off seven racks to claim a semifinal matchup against Bustamante.
"It's my third time at Cardiff," Yang was reported by the World Pool Championship Web site as saying. "And I've reached the last 16 both times before so I will value the opportunity of playing in the semifinal.
"Knowing that lots of people will be watching me at home will be a real driving force to succeed."
The "Son of Pool" may have made it to the last 16 in the three championships he has played in, but he could not break through against the canny Bustamante, who gave little away and capitalized on every opportunity.
Yang managed to take the lead mid-way through the game at 7-5, but made a mistake and was thoroughly punished by the Filipino, who ran out a 11-7 winner.
The 38-year-old Bustamante paid tribute to Yang after the game and said the Taiwan player "hardly made any mistakes but I wanted to win very badly."
Yang made US$16,500 for his efforts and if he keeps up the form that made him World Games Champion last year and a semifinalist at the championships, then he could be a world leader in the sport in a few years time.
Nine Taiwan players were selected to play at the championship, more entrants than any other country bar England , the US and the Philippines.
The other eight players were: Chung Chien-te, Chen Wei-chih, Huang Kun-chang, Chao Fong-pang, Kuo Yi-che, Hung Lu-kung, Chao Jung-hua and Lee Kun-fang.
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