ALEX “The Lion” Pagulayan, the 2005 World Pool champion, made easy work of Nguyen Anh Tuan of Vietnam, 9-4 while world No. 1 Dennis Orcollo routed Chinese Fu Jian Bo, 9-6 yesterday, to advance to the semi-finals of the Guinness 9 Ball Tour 2008 Singapore leg at the Velocity@Novena Square in Singapore.The 2005 US Open winner Pagulayan, jumped to a big 4-1 lead after winning the lag and was never threatened by the luckless Vietnamese. Pagulayan and Orcollo are already guaranteed $3,500 (P157,500) for making the semis. The former will meet the winner of the quarters duel between compatriot Joven Bustamante and Wu Chia Ching of Chinese Taipei. “It was a big help that he missed some shots because I was struggling a bit,” said Pagulayan. Pagulayan actually split his matches in the group stages, but won on a tie-break over Ibrahim Bin Amir of Malaysia in Group G to make it to the final eight. ORCOLLO OUSTS DEFENDING CHAMP Late Friday evening, Orcollo eliminated three-leg champion and defending Grand Finals titlist Chang Jung-Lin of Chinese Taipei, 9 – 7, in a pulsating Group A showdown. Orcollo capitalized on three consecutive dry breaks by Chang during the late stages of the match to put a grinding halt to the three-leg winning streak of the Chinese Taipei player. Trailing 4 – 6, the 29-year old Orcollo rallied to take the next four racks and sit on the hill after back-to-back dry breaks by Chang in the 11th and 13th racks. The Filipino had a chance to close out the match in the 15th following a third straight dry break by Chang, but Orcollo committed a scratch after rushing his shot. Chang cleaned up the rack to trail by only one, 7 – 8, putting pressure on Orcollo. After a few deep breaths, Orcollo managed to break cleanly and ran out the table to clinch the victory and advance to the quarterfinals in the annual event organized by ESPN STAR Sports. A fourth Filipino, Antonio Gabica, also made it to the quarterfinals and was scheduled to meet Yang Ching Shun of Chinese Taipei. Tour newcomer Philippine Junior Champion Jericho Banares failed to advance to the knock-out stage after suffering two consecutive losses in the group matches. | 
