Bustamante, Gallego in quarterfinal duel

BACOLOD CITY—Joven Bustamante started hot and held fort on Friday, forging a quarterfinals duel with local favorite Ramil Gallego in the First Senate President Manny Villar Cup Bacolod leg at the Garden Royal function hall of Goldenfields Commercial Complex here.

The 29-year-old Bustamante zoomed to a 9-0 lead before dumping Elmer Haya, 11-5, while Gallego pocketed six straight racks en route to a similar 11-5 thumping of Japanese Kenji Taguchi in the $37,750-event presented by Villards: Tulong sa Pagsulong ng RP sports.

Sustaining the form that carried him past former World Cup of Pool titlist Fu Jianbo of China in the first round, Bustamante cleaned up the first four racks and was never threatened by Haya, a homegrown talent.

“It was a good start as I ran out the first four racks and it was the key,” said Bustamante, a member of the star-studded Bugsy Promotions of businessman Perry Mariano, in Filipino.

Fired up by the gallery, Gallego, who hails from Fortunetown of this progressive city, built a 9-2 lead to send Taguchi packing home.

Gallego, a frequent campaigner in Japan, thus moved three steps closer to duplicating his win in the Bulacan leg of the series organized by the Billiards Managers and Players Association of the Philippines.

For reaching the last eight, Bustamante and Gallego assured themselves of at least $1,000 each in the four-day competition.

In late matches Thursday, former double world champion Ronnie Alcano squeaked past unheralded Noel Caro, 11-9, to avoid the fate that befell current world No. 1 Dennis Orcollo.

Unable to sink the shots that mattered, Orcollo yielded to Rodolfo Luat, 11-7, joining former world champion Alex Pagulayan and Davao leg titlist Robert Gomez at the exits.

The 33-year-old Alcano is slated to face Luat in a late quarterfinal match yesterday.

Other first round results saw Francisco “Django” Bustamante rout lone female entry Rubilen Amit, 11-3; Cebu leg champion Gandy Valle down Alabang leg champion Warren Kiamco, 11-7; Lee Van Corteza subdue Chinese Wang Ming, 11-9; Michael Feliciano beat Japanese Kenichi Uchigaki, 11-7; John Rebong thwart Carlo Biado, 11-7; and Ronnie Aying repulse Janno Mazon, 11-6.

Efren “Bata” Reyes was tangling with 16-year-old sensation Johann Chua at presstime.

‘Biggies’ in Villar Cup

Expect an even more exciting and more competitive pool action as the First Senate President Manny Villar Cup goes international for its fifth leg slated from November 13 to 16 at the Garden Royal Function Hall of Goldenfields Commercial Complex in Bacolod City.

After four highly successful stops, where the cream of the country’s billiards’ crop battled for supremacy, the island-hopping series, presented by Villards: Tulong sa Pagsulong ng Philippine Sports, has opened its door for some of the world’s top cue artists.

“We want to make this tournament even more competitive, more challenging to our top players, while giving our young players the experience of playing in the international level,” said Senate President Manny Villar during the press launch Wednesday at the Bacolod Goldenfields’ Garden Royal.

“This is part of my commitment of helping sports, especially those where we Filipinos can excel in and dominate, like billiards,” added Villar, now considered as the biggest benefactor of Philippine billiards.

Former World Cup of Pool titlist Fu Jianbo of China leads the visiting forces, who will mix it up with 24 local bets for the coveted title and the $15,000 top prize at stake in this four-day event, organized by the Billiards Managers and Players Association of the Philippines in cooperation with the city government of Bacolod, led by Mayor Evelio Leonardia, and the Negros Billiards Stable of businessman Jonathan Sy and sponsored by Camella Communities.

Besides Fu, the other foreign entries in this tournament, also dubbed as “the Bacolod International VILLARDS Festival,” are former Asian Games gold medalist Satoshi Kawabata of Japan and Christian Johannessen of Norway, among others.

“Mas mabigat nga ang laban ngayon, pero tingin ko kami-kami pa rin ang magkikita sa finals,” said pool icon Efren “Bata” Reyes, reprising one of his famous lines.

Reyes will once again lead the local charge, along with fellow former world champions Alex Pagulayan and Ronnie Alcano, reigning world No. 1 Dennis Orcollo, Francisco “Django” Bustamante, Lee Van Corteza and previous Villar Cup leg winners Kiamco (Alabang), Gandy Valle (Cebu), Ramil Gallego (Bulacan) and Roberto Gomez (Davao).

Also in the 32-man field are Carlo Biado and Ricky Zerna. The rest of the slot will be filled through wild-card entries and a series of qualifying tournaments slated from November 8 to 11 at the Celebrity Billiards and Bar in Bacolod City.

Besides the international invitational division, there will also be the Executive Class and Amateur divisions for both men and women, where almost half-a-million pesos cash prize is at stake.

Bustamante, Alcano stay unscathed

Filipinos Francisco “Django” Bustamante and Ronnie Alcano posted their fifth consecutive victories Thursday to stay in the winners’ bracket in the 33rd Annual US Open 9-Ball Championship at the Chesapeake Convention Center in Chesapeake, Virginia.

Bustamante of Puyat Sports overwhelmed Oscar Dominguez, 11-1, while Alcano of Bugsy Promotions outlasted compatriot Lee Van Corteza, 11-9, as they stayed unscathed in the star-studded event that offers a total cash purse of $250,000.

Corteza made amends by getting the better of Germany’s reigning world eight-ball champion Ralf Souquet, 11-8, in the losers’ bracket to enter the tournament’s last 16.

United States-based Jose “Amang” Parica later pulled the rug from under defending champion Shane Van Boening of the US, 11-10, to join Bustamante, Alcano, and five others in the tightening circle of unbeaten players from the original field of 238.

Counting the eight remnants in the one-loss bracket, only 16 players stayed in contention heading into the final two days of the race for the $40,000 champion’s purse.

Joining Alcano, Bustamante and Parica in the winners’ side are former world champions Mika Immonen, Johnny Archer and Thorsten Hohmann, as well as reigning world 9-ball titlist Darryl Peach and World Cup of Pool co-champion Rodney Morris.

Immonen blasted Shawn Putnam, 11-1; Archer downed Brandon Shuff, 11-5; Hohmann routed Petri Makkonen, 11-2; Peach outsmarted Raj Hundal, 11-8; and Morris trounced Adam Smith, 11-4.

The unfriendly draw, however, has Alcano and Bustamante going up against each other in the next round. Parica will meet Immonen, Archer battles Peach and Hohmann collided with Morris.

Warren Kiamco scored five wins in the losers’ bracket to stay in the hunt.

Eight Billiard Players Return for U.S. Open including Bustamante

Only eight players are still alive at the 33rd Annual U.S. Open 9-Ball Championships, held this week in Chesapeake, VA.

Friday’s elimination rounds began with Lee Van Corteza sending 22-year-old Oscar Dominguez home 11-6, while fellow countryman Warren Kiamco ousted Tony Chohan 11-3. Also, Donnie Mills continued his winning ways, eliminating Canada’s Tyler Edey 11-8, with Corey “Cash Money” Deuel defeating Larry Nevel 11-7.

The 1 p.m. round featured winners’-bracket matches. Reigning 9-ball champion Daryl Peach went up against Johnny Archer in one of the event’s lengthiest matches, 4 hours and 40 minutes. It was close throughout, going to 9-all. Peach almost scratched on the break, but Archer cleared that table to take the hill. Archer jumped the cue ball off the table on his next break, but Peach hooked himself on the 4 ball and was forced to jump, almost making the 9. With only five balls left on the table, Archer cleared the table easily for the 11-9 win.

Rodney Morris had a tight match against Thorsten Hohmann. The score went all the way to 10-9 in Morris’ favor when he scratched on the break and screamed. Hohmann cleared to make it hill-hill and then engaged Morris in a lengthy safety battle on the 1 ball. Finally Hohmann left Morris a shot, and Morris jacked up and fired in the 1 ball to clear the remainder of the balls for the 11-10 win.

Mika Immonen grabbed an early lead in his match against Jose Parica and never relinquished it, winning 11-8. In the last winners’-side match, Francisco Bustamante never seemed to show up in his match against Ronnie Alcano. At one point he was down 9-4 but managed to take two racks before Alcano won their match 11-6.

In the 3 p.m. elimination rounds, Corey Deuel demonstrated serious prowess over Francisco Bustamante. Though Bustamante had few errors, they were important ones, while Deuel didn’t always make his position but made some excellent shots to win 11-7.

Hohmann finally ended Donnie Mills’ run at the title after defeating him 11-9, while Corteza sent fellow Filipino Parica home 11-5. Additionally, Kiamco dealt Peach an 11-3 defeat in their elimination match.

In the evening rounds, winners’-bracket matches will be Johnny Archer versus Mika Immonen, and Rodney Morris versus Ronnie Alcano. In the one-loss side, Thorsten Hohmann will play Corey Deuel, while Warren Kiamco plays Lee Van Corteza.

Bustamante Busts Appleton

The winners’-bracket matches kicked off the evening session of the 33rd Annual U.S. Open 9-Ball Championships, leaving 16 players undefeated to return Thursday evening.

Recently crowned 10-ball champion Darren “Dynamite” Appleton was sent west by crowd favorite Francisco Bustamante after their winners’-bracket match. Appleton took the first two racks but lost a safety battle in the third game, giving Bustamante the momentum to forge ahead 5-2. Put to the test, Appleton tied up the score at 5 apiece. They traded the next few racks to make it 7-6 in Bustamante’s favor, and then “Django” pocketed the 2-9 combo. A miss by Appleton on an easy 1 ball in the next rack made it 9-6 Bustamante. Rattled, Appleton did not win another game, and Bustamante won 11-6.

A slow start did not bode well for Shannon Daulton in his match against Filipino phenom Lee Van Corteza. In the first rack Daulton missed hitting a very tough 9 ball by a hair, and from there it was a slow grind, with no player having more than a two-rack lead. Finally the score reached 10-9 in Corteza’s favor after he played a 2-9 combo to reach the hill, and Corteza swept the last rack as well to win the match.

A strong opening bid of 5-0 for Josh Lewis led to surprising results in his match against the 22-year-old Oscar Dominguez. Dominguez took advantage of Lewis’ empty breaks to bring the score to 6-3 and then knot the score at 8-all. Finally it seesawed to double-hill, at which point Lewis missed the 1 ball, which was hanging in the corner. Dominguez had an easy run through the 7 ball but was left with a tricky shot on the 8, but he hit it perfectly and won the match 11-10.

Former U.S. Open champion Jeremy “Double J” Jones was sent to the left side after his match against Sam Monday. Down throughout the match, at 9-7, Jones snookered himself on the 3 ball to hand that game to Monday, who then broke and ran out the final rack, winning 11-7.

Virginia State champion Eric Moore played in the one-loss side Wednesday against Florida’s Hunter Lombardo and came out ahead. Moore suffered a second-round loss to Larry Nevel 11-3 and has been making a comeback from the west side, defeating Rick Hamlin 11-2. His match against Lombardo was one-sided—Moore had a 10-1 lead before Lombardo put three more racks under his belt. At 10-4, Lombardo missed a thin cut on the 2 ball, and Moore cleared for the win.

Orcollo-Bustamante nails WC semis slot

Francisco “Django” Bustamante and Dennis Orcollo overwhelmed dark horse Japan, 9-2, Saturday to advance to the semifinals of the 2008 PartyPoker.net World Cup of Pool at the Outland Nightclub in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

The veteran Filipino pair, teaming up for the first time, proved just too powerful for the Japanese pair of Doha Asian Games gold medalist Satoshi Kawabata and Naoyuki Oi.

They now need two more wins to rule the $250,000 event.

The second-seeded RP team was slated to face the sixth-ranked United States pair of former world 10-ball titlist Shane van Boening and Rodney Morris Sunday night for a final slot.

The Americans advanced after nipping Austria’s Jasmin Ouschan and Martin Kempter, 9-7, in their quarterfinal encounter.

The other Final Four match pits defending champion China against No. 5 England.

The Chinese pair of Fu Jianbo and Li Hewen demolished No. 9 Italy (Fabio Petroni and Bruno Muratore), 9-2, while the English tandem of reigning world 9-ball champion Darryl Peach and Mark Gray upended the fourth-seeded German pair of Ralf Souquet and Thomas Engert, 9-7.

The semifinal winners will advance to the race-to-11 title duel, also slated Sunday (Monday, 1 a.m. Manila time). The winning team will receive $60,000.

Just as in their previous wins over Denmark (8-2) in the opening round and Russia (8-3) in the Last 16, Bustamante and Orcollo needed just a couple of racks to get into the groove.

The Filipinos surrendered the lag and the first rack to the Japanese but won the next three to seize the lead.

After the Japanese won the fifth frame, Bustamante of Puyat Sports and Orcollo of Bugsy Promotions swept the next six racks to clinch the win and surpass the country’s quarterfinal finish here last year.

It’s the first time the Philippines will meet the US in this event since 2006, when Bustamante and Efren “Bata” Reyes trounced Morris and former two-time world 9-ball king Earl Strickland, 13-5, in the finals of the event’s inaugural edition in Newport Centre, Wales.

Bustamante, Orcollo test Danish duo

Team Villards-Philippines’ Francisco “Django” Bustamante and Dennis Orcollo hope to duck the upset storm that already claimed a couple of high-seeded teams right in the opening day as they take on an unheralded pair from Denmark on Thursday to open their bid in the 2008 PartyPoker.net World Cup of Pool in Rotterdam, Holland.

The Filipino duo, seeded second in the field of 32, collides with the tandem of No. 31 seeds Martin Larsen and Kasper Kristoffersen in the last scheduled match of the opening round of this $250,000 tournament.

“The field is very tough, and that any team can beat the others,” assessed Bustamante. “That’s why we need to come up with our best right from the start of the match to avoid the upset, just like what happened to those two teams.”

Bustamante was referring to the fate suffered by one of the host country’s squad and last year’s runner-up Finland, which succumbed to their lower-ranked opponents.

The No. 3 seed Holland A of world No. 2 Niels Feijen and Nick van den Berg lost to No. 30 Belgium of little-known Noel Bruynooghe and Serge Das, 8-3.

The No. 8 Finland pair, made up of former world champion Mika Immonen and Markus Juva dropped an 8-4 decision to the Korean duo of Jeong Young-hwa and Kim Woong-dae.

“A race-to-eight match is very short, so you need to have a strong start,” said world No. 1 Orcollo. “ Hangga’t maari nga ‘wag mo nang patirahin yung kalaban, dahil baka pag binigay mo ‘yung mesa hindi ka na makabalik (If it’s possible, you should not let your opponents get to the table because you might not have the chance to get it back).”

The campaign of Orcollo and Bustamante is supported by Senate President Manny Villar and the Billiards Managers and Players Association of the Philippines (BMPAP).

Other opening round matches saw defending champion and top seed China hold off No. 32 India, 8-6; No. 5 England, led by reigning world 9-ball titlist Darryl Peach, beat Malta, 8-4; No. 9 Italy blast Peru, 8-4; and No. 16 Switzerland prevail over Hong Kong, 8-5.

A team needs to win five straight matches to become the third holder of the World Cup of Pool crown.

Bustamante and Efren “Bata” Reyes topped the inaugural edition in Newport Centre, Wales two years ago over USA’s Earl Strickland and Rodney Morris, 13-5. They lost to China in last year’s quarterfinals, 6-9.

China’s Li He-wen and Fu Jian-bo nipped Finland’s Mika Immonen and Markus Juva, 11-10, for the title last year, also in Holland.