BUSTAMANTE, CUARTERO ADVANCE TO LAST 64
By Marlon Bernardino
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 01 Jul 2010
FORMER World no.1 Francisco "Django" Bustamante and Allan "Surigao" Cuartero trounced their respective foes to advance into the round-of-64 and keep their bids alive in the 2010 WPA World Pool Championships (World 9-Ball) at the Qatar Billiards and Snooker Federation hall in Doha, Qatar late Thursday.
Bustamante, the pride of Puyat Sports, took Tohru Kuribayashi of Japan, scoring a 9-6 rout to advance in his quest for his first World 9-ball title in this $250,000 total pot prize event with the champion getting the lion's share of $36,000.
?Ang hirap at hindi rin madali ?tong panalong ito, dahil magaling din ?yung nakalaban ko. Medyo maganda lang ang itinira ko, at gustung-gusto ko talagang manalo dito kasi lahat naman ay pangarap maging World 9-ball champion," said Bustamante who broke the 6-all tie in the 12th rack after clustering three straight racks for a 9-6 victory.
Cuartero, a Middle East pool instructor, on the other hand, utilized his vast experience to the hilt in bringing down heavyweight Niels Feijen of the Netherlands, 9-7, keeping him on track for the coveted title.
"Buti nakalamang agad tayo kay (Niels) Feijen," said Cuartero, who race a 7-4 commanding lead and never looked back.
The Tarlac City native Bustamante, who won the 23rd Japan Open in Tokyo and Super Billiards Leaque in Winnipeg, Canada toppled Fabio Petroni of Italy, 9-7, in the first round while Cuartero subdued Chan Keng Kwang of Singapore, 9-7.
Ibrahim Bin Amir, a native of Mindanao who migrated to Malaysia scored his second straight win against Mariusz Skoneczny of Poland, 9-5, to book a seat to the Last 64 knock-out stages. Earlier, he beat Bruno Muratore of Italy, 9-7.
Joven Alba, conqueror of Marlon Manalo in the first round failed to continue his winning streak after yielding to Scott Higgins of Great Britain, 9-4. His next round match is against Kenny Kwok of Hongkong.
In the winner's side of 2nd round of group stage matches, 2010 World Pool Masters titlist Dennis "Robocop" Orcullo was set to play Chris Melling of Great Britain while 2010 US Open 10-ball champion Lee Vann "The Slayer" Corteza will test the mettle of Christian Reimering of Great Britain; Oliver Medenilla goes up against Fahad Al Barak of Kingdon of Saudi Arabia; Israel "Amay" Rota will meet Nguyen Phoc Long of Vietnam and Raymund Faraon versus Nick Van den Berg of the Netherlands.
Meanwhile, former 9-ball and 8-ball world champion Ronato "Volcano" Alcano, Antonio "Ga-Ga" Gabica and Antonio "Nickoy" Lining lived up to expectations by hurdling past respective rivals on Wednesday.
Alcano, member of the Billiards Managers and Players Association of the Philippines (BMPAP), crushed Ahmed Hassan of Iraq, 9-1. He will face David "El Matador" Alcaide of Spain in the next round. Alcaide downed Jason Theron of Republic of South Africa, 9-6.
"Hindi ko talaga pinaporma kaya iniwanan ko agad siya," said the lanky Calamba cue artist Alcano to his long-time benefactor Perry Mariano of Bugsy Promotions in a long distance call yesterday.
Sportsman/businessman Perry Mariano on his part said "Sana pumasok lahat ng mga Filipino sa Last 64."
The Cebuano native Gabica, who is best remembered winning the 9-ball gold and 8-ball silver medal in the 2006 Doha Asian Games, outclassed Nicolas Otterman of Germany, 9-7, and will meet countryman Francisco Felicilda, a 9-8 winner over Muhammad Zulfikri of India.
The Japan-based Lining beat Corey Deuel of the United States, 9-7, to arrange a second-round duel with Khalid Al Kamale of United Arab Emirates, who subdued Martin Kempter of Austria, 9-8.
Sharing the limelight is Venancio "Tukao" Tanio, a former Southeast Asian Games medallist, who trounced Holger Gries of Germany, 9-5, to face Liu Haitao of China, who upset former 9-ball and 8-ball world champion Efren "Bata" Reyes, 9-5, in the first round of group stage matches.
In the loser's brackets, the 2010 Player of the Decade Efren "Bata" Reyes, the acknowledged greatest player of all time, remain in contention after eliminating Gries, 9-7.
Manalo beat Waleed Majid of Qatar, 9-7, as well Jeffrey "The Bull" de Luna hammered Richard Jones of Great Britain, 9-6, to stay alive.
Manalo from Barangay Talumpong, Mandaluyong City will square off with Francis Crevier of Canada in the next round.
Artem Koshovoj of Ukraine, meantime, inflicted the second straight loss of reigning World 9-ball champion Daryl Peach of Great Britain, 9-8, who booted out of this tournament which attracted the world's best pool wizards.
Current World 8-ball champion and ex-World 9-ball ruler Ralf "Kaiser" Souquet of Germany also won his match in the one-loss side against Carlo Castro of Nicaragua, 9-1.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Marlon Bernardino.
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