CROWD FAVORITES PACQUIAO-ALCANO, REYES-BUSTAMANTE SENT TO LOSERS BRACKET
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 16 Dec 2014
GENERAL SANTOS CITY ? The crowd-favorite tandems of Manny Pacquiao and Ronnie Alcano and Efren ?Bata? Reyes and Francisco ?Django? Bustamante met their match, losing to separate opponents that stalled their march to the Round of 16 Monday in the doubles event of the MP International 10-Ball Championships.
The big pro-Pacquiao crowd at the SM General Santos left home sad as their hometown idol and partner Alcano, the 2006 World 9-Ball king, suffered their first defeat in three games at the hands of unknown youngsters Romeo Silvano and Jordan Legaspi, via a whopping 9-2 count.
The duo, thus, need two more victories in the losers? side in today?s resumption of the race for the top $40,000 money prize.
The legendary pair of Reyes and Bustamante, both ex-world champs and erstwhile unbeaten, too, on the other hand, bowed to the superior combo of international mix.
Finnish Mika Immonen and American Rodney Morris exacted an overwhelming, 9-4, decision over Reyes and Bustamante and, like the Pacquiao-Alcano tandem, must survive fighting it out in today?s loser?s bracket plays to stay in the running.
Immonen, like the Congressman from Sarangani, is celebrating his birthday on Wednesday. He will be 32 and Pacquiao 36.
The surprisingly tough Silvano, 28 from Dipolog City, and close friend Legaspi, 25 from Bocaue in Bulacan, showed the way to their more experienced rivals from the time they separated from an early 1-all stalemate and surging to as big as 7-2 advantage, which Pacquiao and Alcano never threatened.
Same with Reyes, the classic?s singles winner, and Bustamante, the world?s 9-Ball rulers in 1999 and 2010, respectively, who were in the game only until midway when they stayed close, 4-3, and, 5-4.
The popular Filipino tandem lost steam though in the homestretch allowing the two-nation team to score that lopsided win.
The Paquiao-Alcano team?s misfortune continued late in the evening when they lost to the Filipino combination of Dennis Orcullo and American Shane Van Boening in a special challenge-cum exhibition match that delighted the gallery, nevertheless.
Defending doubles champion Jeffrey de Luna and Jeffrey Ignacio blasted the pair of Napoleon Labrador and Reynaldo Larika, 9-4, on the way to their third straight triumph leading a batch of undefeated combinations to make it to the top 16.
The elite list included Chinese duo of Hsu Kai lun and Cheng Yu Hsuan who took the measure of Benjie Guevarra and Roland dela Cruz, 9-7; Taiwanese brothers Ko Pin Yi and Ko Pin Chung, 9-5, winner over German Thorsten Hohmann and American John Mora, 9-5; and Lin Chung Han and Lin Ri Teng, 9-6, victors over the pair of Marvin Tapia and Tony Punzalan.
Results came in drizzles due to the big number of participants. Seventy four pairs answered the doubles opening breaks of the $150,000 classic bankrolled by Pacquiao himself and supervised by tournament directress Izz Caparras and her assistant Troy Danao.
Since the series, that drew 128 competitors, started Tuesday last week, it has been through the extra efforts of the statistics group headed by Kai Salic that enabled participants to get the outcome of the matches.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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