Drago, Borg face English pair in first round

The 2008 World Cup of pool, sponsored by PartyPoker.net, will be played in Rotterdam, Holland, between today and Sunday.

The 32-strong entry field is made up of 10 teams from Asia, two from North America, 17 from Europe and three other teams from Australia, Peru and Qatar.

The Maltese team features Tony Drago and Alex Borg who kick off their commitments this evening when they meet England (Daryl Peach and Mark Gray) in round one. The winner of the Malta-England match will meet the winner of Canada- France in round two.

The defending World Cup of Pool champions are Chinese duo Li He-wen and Fu Jian-bo who begin the defence of their title against India.

Following the conclusion of this competition, Europe and the USA will finalise their selection process for the 2008 Mosconi Cup (www.maltacup.org/mosconi), to be staged at the Hilton Conference Centre between Dec. 11 and 14.

Drago has already been confirmed as one of the final five members of Team Europe.

The promoters of the PartyPoker.net World Cup of Pool are Matchroom Sport who are also behind The Mosconi Cup.

England's Darren Appleton won the inaugural World 10-Ball Pool Championship in Manila last weekend, defeating former world champion Wu Chia-ching of Taiwan 13-11. Appleton became the second Englishman to win a world pool title after Daryl Peach won the nine-ball championship in Manila in November 2007.