Francisco Bustamante made his way into the semi-finals of the PartyPoker.net World Pool Masters to set up an all-Filipino clash with Alex Pagulayan following an 8-4 win at the Riviera over England ’s Imran Majid.
Majid played well in patches but his luck deserted him at critical moments and Bustamante made enough quality run outs to keep himself ahead throughout.
“That was a great match and I played good in the beginning,” said Bustamante. “Majid got close and I was lucky when he scratched on the break at 5-4. That was a very big game for me. “I’ll try my best against Alex in the semi-final. I last played him in the World Championship in the Phil ippines last November when I beat him.”
The Filipino won the lag and completed a comfortable run out to take the early lead and with two balls off the break in the next, another clearance made it 2-0.
There were two more balls down from Bustamante’s next break but he scratched as he needed to force the cue ball to gain position off the yellow 1. Majid’s first visit to the table was with ball in hand but he missed an easy 8 ball into the corner pocket to gift the rack to Bustamante.
A fluked 3 ball from the Filipino set up another run out to take the score to 4-0 but he came up dry in the fifth game to give Majid his best chance.
He missed the 1 ball into the centre pocket though and Bustamante pocketed it with a precise bank shot. A bank on the blue 2 wobbled in the jaws and stayed out and Majid set about the table but a nudge on the cue ball made him lose position.
Majid’s snooker on the 7 ball forced Bustamante to reach for his jump stick and although he made contact, it fell nicely for Majid and he ran out to take his first rack of the match.
A dry break from Majid allowed Bustamante back to the table but he was forced to play safe. Majid though laid an excellent snooker and although his opponent escaped, it left the 1 ball on.
A positional error from Majid forced him to play safe and both players went back and forth with safeties. Bustamante made the first mistake which allowed Imran to clear to get the score back to 2-4.
The Filipino though won the next rack to move into a 5-2 lead and he made two balls off the next break to put himself in a good position. He missed a tough pot on the 1 ball though, and Majid ran the table to grab a rack back.
Yet another dry break resulted in Bustamante looking good for a run out but he inexplicably scratched into the side pocket with just three balls left on the table. The Englishman returned to the table and finished it off to reduce his deficit to a single rack.
Majid looked to have made a golden break but the cue ball scratched to deny him. With ball in hand, Bustamante ran out to go to 6-4.
He broke and ran the next to reach the hill at 7-4 and there was more of the same in what was the final rack of the game to seal an 8-4 win for Bustamante.
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