The 2001 Admiral World Pool Championship in Cardiff, Wales, got off to a slow start for defending champion and newly crowned International Challenge of Champions winner Fong-Pang Chao, and now the Taiwanese 9-ball star is close to missing the next round. Despite winning two of his first three matches after claiming the winner-take-all $50,000 prize at the Challenge of Champions in Uncasville, Conn., on Thursday, Chao finds himself at the bottom of a three-way tie for the last two spots in Group 1, thanks to the scorching starts by group leader Quentin Hann (4-0) of Australia and England’s Chris Melling (3-0). In Monday’s action, Chao is scheduled take on Brazil’s Fabio Luersen and Brit Andy Battams.

Other notable players on the bubble after the first two days of play include Rodolfo Luat (1-2), George SanSouci (1-3), Kim Davenport (2-2), Allen Hopkins (1-3), Jon Kucharo (1-3) and Luc Salvas (1-3).

Betting favorite Earl Strickland (3-0) went undefeated through the first two days, as did Charlie Williams (4-0), Marcus Chamat (3-0), Hao-Ping Chang (3-0), Dmitri Jungo (3-0), Radoslaw Babica (4-0), Efren Reyes (4-0),Young-hwa Jeong (3-0), Ralf Souquet (4-0), Steve Knight (3-0), Johnny Archer (4-0), Chia-hsiung Lai (3-0), Lee Tucker (4-0), Thomas Engert (3-0), Nick Vandenberg (3-0) and Leonardo Andam (3-0).