WORLD 10 BALL: FARAON, RAGA AND BONUS ADVANCE
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 19 Feb 2015
Faraon.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY ? A pair of relatively unknown local pool sharks and three battle-scarred compatriots posted their second straight victory each and led the early birds that made it to the round of 64 in Day two of the main draw of the WPA 10-Ball championship here Wednesday
Raymund Faraon, Anton Raga and Jerico Bonus. whose names escaped even tournament officials, continued surprising the 128-field that includes the World Pool Association 24 highest rated players and found themselves in the company an elite list that will vie for honors in the money round.
Faraon, whose only known credential, as told by those who know him, is a brief teaching stint in Dubai, bested Chinese Taipei?s Liu Chien Chie, 9-7, in their battle for the first-to win-nine match up played in barely three hours.
Raga, showing, too, the world renowned Filipino brand of play, outlasted Wang Can of Canada, 9-8, in a seesaw encounter that delighted no end the appreciative crowd at the Activity Center at the SM GenSan here.
Bonus had an easier time though disposing of Marco Teutzcher of the Netherlands, who raised the white flag after only 14 racks, 9-5.
The trio?s superb showing in the tournament bankrolled by World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao, almost overshadowed their more illustrious countrymen?s making it, too, to the next round later in the heavy scheduled second day of hostilities in the main draw.
World no. 7 Dennis Orcullo found stiff competition from compatriot Roland Garcia, who engaged him in a tight toe-to-toe contest before bowing out, 8-9.
Rounding out the Philippine campaign based on the only reported results as of this writing were Lee Van Corteza?s mastery of John Rebong, 9-5, in an all-Filipino showdown and Antonio Gabica?s similarly lopsided 9-3 win over Karol Skowerski of Poland.
Coverage of the event, that will include the MP Cup word 10-Ball doubles event starting next week, continued to a nightmare to a handful of media men, who in the absence of a press room were yet barred from entering the playing venue to get results by one of the WPA officials overseeing the series.
Completion of the 64 matches in group plays were held Wednesday starting at 10 a.m and expected to end 10 p.m.
A total 52 pool artists made it to the main draw following seeding based on WPA rules as well as results of the two-day qualifying round held last Sunday and Monday.
While there were victors, there were losers, too, and the biggest victim of the touted internationalists proved to be former world 9-ball and 8-ball champion Ronnie Alcano, who failed to contain Karl Boyes in a 9-7 setback at the start of the group plays Tuesdays.
Also advancing to the round of 64, among others, were no. 1 seed Chung Yu Long of Chinese Taipei, Ralf Souquet of Germany, Chang Jun Lin of Taipei, Kudlik Piotr of Poland and Ruben Bautista of Mexico,
Filipino top guns Francisco ?Django? Bustamante and Alex Pagulayan, both former world 9-ball kingpins, were still playing at press time.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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