Souquet Lifts Masters Trophy Again

RALF Souquet clinched his fifth PartyCasino.com World Pool Masters title with an 8-4 victory against Alex Pagulayan.

Souquet has the best record of any player in this event and this success follows previous wins in 2002, 2000, 1996 and 1994.

Champion Souquet, who is known as The Kaiser, was delighted to win the tournament. He said: “It was a hard match as expected and even though the scoreline suggests it was easy, it wasn’t.

“This performance was probably my best match in the whole event. The semi-final was ok although I didn’t feel 100 per cent comfortable but I had a good feeling now and wanted to take every chance I had.”

Pagulayan had beaten Steve Davis, Vilmos Foldes and Raj Hundal to reach his first Masters final and won the lag and first rack before Souquet equalised in the second.

But Pagulayan scratched off the break in the third to gift the German a chance to take an early advantage. Souquet, who had defeated Efren Reyes, Imran Majid and Wu Chia-Ching to reach the final, maintained a perfect position for every shot to move in front for the first time at 2-1.

Souquet potted two balls off the break in the fourth rack and had a good shot on the 1 but knew the blue 2, lying near the side rail, could prove to be difficult so opted to play safe.

After a tight exchange, Pagulayan was gifted an opportunity as Souquet scratched and, with ball in hand, the Canadian/Filipino pulled it back to 2-2.

Pagulayan potted the 1 ball with a kickshot but then missed a long shot at the red 3.

However, Souquet failed to capitalise on the error as he produced one of his worst shots of the competition as he presented Pagulayan with the chance that he took to regain the lead.

Both players were making mistakes and a foul from Pagulayan gave Souquet ball in hand to level the match at 3-3.

Souquet banked the 1-ball but then could not clinch the seventh rank as a miss on red three brought Pagulayan back to the table.

He pocketed the 3-ball after a kickshot and tried a similar tactic to pot the pink 4 but failed to sink it as the German again moved in front.

Souquet ran through the eighth as he gained a two-rack advantage for the first time in this final. It became a three-rack lead after he patiently, but effectively, made sure of the ninth to make the score 6-3 as he closed in on yet another Masters title.

Pagulayan scratched on the 1-ball and Souquet, again with ball in hand, moved to the hill with a 7-3 lead.

The entertaining Pagulayan kept the match alive by winning the 11th rack but Souquet ran from the break in the 12th to become Masters champion again.

Luke Riches , on behalf of sponsors PartyCasino.com, and Cakti Aswan, President of the Dutch Pool Federation, then presented Souquet with the winners’ trophy to complete a fantastic tournament.