BATA, DJANGO EYES F4 IN WORLD CUP OF POOL

THE Filipino dynamic duo Efren “Bata” Reyes and Francisco “Django” Bustamante hopes to sustain their winning run in the on-going 2009 PartyCasino.net World Cup of Pool at the SM North Edsa in Quezon City.

The top two players of sportsman/ businessman Aristeo “Putch” Puyat, playing for the Philippine Team B is came from back to back wins over Qatari partners Bashar Hussain and Mohammed Ali Bi Ali, 8-3, Tuesday night and Italian pairs of former world trickshot ruler Fabio Petroni and Bruno Muratore, 8-5, Thursday night to join defending champion United States in the quarterfinals.

“Hopefully it doesn’t matter who we play next but me and Efren have lots of pressure every time we miss a ball or make a mistake,” said Bustamante.

Their next assignment will be either England or Spain, who are still battling it out for a quarterfinals slot.

Team England is made up of 2008 World 10-Ball champ Darren Appleton and Imran Majid while Spain is represented by David Alcaide and Rafael Guzman.

Reyes and Bustamante were the inaugural World Cup of Pool champions when the tournament was first held in 2006 in Newport, South Wales.

Shane Vane Boeing and Rodney Morris carried the fight for the Americans who subdued Maltese pairing Tony Drago and Alex Borg, 8-7, and outclassed Indons tandem of Muhammad Simanjuntuak and Muhammad Zulfikri, 8-5.

America will face Finland or China who battling out for the quarters.

“I’m dogging it at the moment right now as I’m not spending enough time at the table so I need to practise more. I would rather not play against Mika Immonen in the next round because he is a good friend but China are solid guys,” said Morris.

“Whatever comes out of the bracket will be very tough but we will be ready for them. Mika has his eyes on the final in every tournament he plays in so it will be interesting if we play Finland.”

Meanwhile, Philippine Team A, composed of Dennis “Robocop” Orcollo and Ronnie “Volcano” Alcano would have to hurdle Team Russia to join Reyes and Bustamante in the quarterfinals.

Russia is represented by partners Konstantin Stepnanov and Ruslan Chinakhov, who brought downed Denmark, 8-3.

Stepanov is 25 and Chinakhov is 17 but they controlled the match from start to finish as they restricted Denmark to few chances and converted their own.

Denmark struggled throughout and failed to take their chances as Russia moved quickly into a 5-1 lead. There was no real way back from that for the Danish pair of Kasper Kristoffersen and Bahram Lotfy.

“We practice together and we’re friends off the table as well and I think that helps in this type of format,” said Stepanov after the match.

An all-Filipino final is possible since the Reyes-Bustamante pair is in the upper bracket and the Dennis Orcollo-Ronato Alcano duo is in the lower group.

The event featuring 32 teams from 31 nations competing for the $60,000 first prize from the total cash pot of $250,000.

BY: MARLON BERNARDINO

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Complete Results To Date

Second Round

Philippines 8 – 5 Italy

USA 8 – 5 Indonesia

First Round

Holland 8 – 3 Vietnam

Russia 8 – 3 Denmark

Poland 8 – 0 Belgium

Chinese Taipei 8 – 6 Singapore

Philippines A 8 – 5 Thailand

England 8 – 4 Malaysia

Germany 8 – 0 Hong Kong

Japan 8 – 6 Croatia

Italy 8 – 5 Austria

Finland 8 – 3 Sweden

Philippines B 8 – 3 Qatar

USA 8 – 7 Malta

Indonesia 8 – 3 India

Spain 8 – 3 Australia

China 8 – 5 Korea

France 8 – 1 Canada