GREG Jenkins heads the Australian contingent at the world pool championship in Manila, Philippines, from this weekend, and he’s amped about the format change implemented to make the game more exciting.
For the first time, the championship is using a format whereby the winner of a frame breaks in the next frame. The game used to be “alternate break”, which made it “very hard to get a rhythm going”, Jenkins told FOXSPORTS.com.au from Manila.
“I really like the format,” he said.
“A lot of the players have accepted that it’s a good thing.
“If you win the previous frame you get to start the next, and the break is very important. It’s a massive part of the game. If you can break well and be able to control the table then you get a chance to make a run of frames in a row. Also on the other side, if you fall behind, it gives you a chance to catch up if you can get things going.”
Jenkins - Super Jenk in pool parlance – qualified for the world championship by winning the Australia nine-ball title in February, but “it was only guaranteed when I committed maybe four five months ago”.
“I started getting right in to it then," he said.
"It’s been a like a progression of wanting to continue right up to this stage, and I don’t think I’ve ever put this much work into it ever before.”
Much as Jenkins has worked hard to get his game in tip-top shape, he has struggled to do so, as pool is very much a “part-time thing” for the Sydneysider, who has a full-time job as a fork-lift storeman.
“There’s not enough events in Australia to warrant going full-time,” he said.
“But pool has been a big part of my life. I played professional snooker and, for the last 30 years, I’ve been playing cue sports.
“Trying to combine a job and a young family with practice, it’s tough. The competition side of it, it’s been a bit scarce. There’s been a few major tournaments I haven’t been able to get to through other commitments, so it’s been down to myself and my motivation to practice at home. I’ll find out this week how my preparation’s been going.”
Jenkins is drawn alongside former world champion Johnny Archer, from the US, and Chao Fong-pang, from Chinese Taipei, in group 15, and he opens his campaign against Naoyuki Oi, from Japan.
“He is the Japanese No.1,” Jenkins said of Oi.
“I’ve seen him once on TV. He’s a very strong player, very fast, and unlike a lot of the Asian players he shows a lot of emotion.
“It’s very tough whichever group you’re in; four people go through to the round of 64; two will have not lost a match and two will have lost just one match; then it’s just straight knockout.
“Coming from Australia, where we don’t play a lot of events, just getting through the group stage will be a challenge. There’s no end of talent to play against and it’s going to come down to how much I can keep my self-belief.”
Experience, Jenkins says, is the one thing the Australian quartet lacks heading to Manila.
“We’ve all won similar events,” he said of himself, James Delahunty, Dave ‘The Relic’ Reljic and Louis Condo.
“We haven’t got anywhere near the – I’ll use the term – ability of some of the other players, and some of the experience, but it really comes down to how much you can maintain you’re focus, and we might get a few qualifiers.”
Rather than hosting any great dreams of winning the title, Jenkins – who believes that reigning champ Ronnie Alcano, playing on home soil, may yet defend the title he won in the Philippines last year.
“Only in the last month, he was runner up in the US Open, which is the next biggest tournament,” Jenkins said.
“His results haven’t been flash in other events, but he’s also the world eight-ball champion so he’s got the pedigree and I think he’ll be looking forward to do well in front of his home crowd.”
Jenkins, too, is looking forward to performing well in the Philippines, likening the venue, the Areneta Coliseaum, which famously hosted the “Thrilla in Manila" between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in 1975, to Brazil’s mythic football stadium, the Maracana.
“Soccer in Brazil and pool in the Philippines, it’s on a level par,” he said.
“I can imagine the crowds will be enormous and very parochial and very loud.”
Source: Super Jenk seeking Thrilla
