FILIPINOS DYNAMIC DUO BATA AND DJANGO ADVANCE INTO QUARTER FINALS
THE FILIPINOS Dynamic duo of Efren "Bata" Reyes and Francisco "Django" Bustamante cruised to the quarterfinals after blanking the pair of Philipp Stojanovic and Ivica Putnik of Croatia, and became the first team who post a stunning 8-0 win in the ongoing 2007 PartyPoker.net World Cup of Pool late Thursday at the Outland Nightclub in Rotterdam, Holland.
With the impressive win, the two prized players of Puyat Sports sent a strong warning to their rivals that they intend to bring home the championship trophy and the top purse of $60,000 not to mention the honor for the country again.
Reyes and Bustamante, the reigning World Cup holders, have shown they will be a very difficult team to beat and will now face either France (Stephan Cohen and Vincent Facquet) or China (Li He Wen and Fu Jian Bo) in Saturday's quarter-final.
Puyat Sports events manager Ish Caparras is confident that the two Filipino icon will play very well. "Basta pumanig lamang ang bola kina Efren (Reyes) at Django (Bustamante) kasama na ang luck, kasi 9-ball yan eh." She added.
The tandem of Reyes and Bustamante crushed the American duo of Earl Strickland and Rodney Morris, 13-5, in the finals to pocketed the inauguration crown last year in New South Wales, England .
In this year's edition, they survived a close 8-6 victory over Scotland's (Pat Holtz and Michael Valentine) in the round-of-32.
The Japanese pair of Satoshi Kawabata and Naoyuki Oi put tremendous performance by beating heavyweight Holland A consisting of Niels Feijen and Nick van den Berg in a thrilling 8-7 victory, also reached the quarter-final round in this 31 nation event applying the scotch doubles, winner-break format which offers a total pot prize of $250,000.
Japan on the other hand takes the winner of the "Sweet 16" matches between Singapore (Chan Keng Kwang and Toh Lian Han) versus Austria ( Martin Kempter and Albin Ouschan).
Meanwhile, Filipino-Canadian Edwin Montal, representing Canada who teaming up with Alain Martel defeated team India of Dharminder Singh Lilly and Manan Chandra , 8-3, in the round-of 32 to face Korea ( Kim Woong-dae and Rye Seung-woo) in the next round, a 8-5 winner over Vietnam, consisting of Luong Chi-dung and Thanh Nam Nguyen, reached the semi-finals in the last year's edition.
Other teams playing in the Sweet 16" are Taiwan (Wu Chia-ching and Yang Ching-shun) versus Belgium (Serge Das at Noel Bruynooghe), late substitute of no-shows Malaysia; England (Imran Majid and Daryl Peach) versus Finland (Mika Immonen and Markus Juva) and Switzerland (Marco Tschudi and Dimitri Jungo) over United States (Corey Deuel and Rodney Morris).
DE LUNA, ZERNA ARE POOL SHOWDOWN MATCH OF THE WEEK
TWO YOUNG GUNS from different giant billiard stable draws first blood in the opening of a new sports program.
2006 Asian Games 9-ball silver medalist Jeffrey "The Bull" De Luna and 2007 Winner Take All 9-ball champion Ricky "Bai" Zerna will be the Match of the Week after winning their respective group in the ring game Tuesday's affair of "Pool Showdown" dubbed as "Who will be the last man standing" held in Rizal Memorial Billiards Center in Manila.
De Luna from the Bugsy Promotion Stable and Negros Billiards Stable ace player Zerna are set to meet today (Saturday), September 29 to determine week's "Hari ng Mesa" which will be aired live telecast on ABC-5 at 8:00 to 10:30 P.M.
"Pool Showdown is a huge boost for RP pool program, our match of the week on Saturday will be a very exciting game between two young players Jeff (De Luna) and Ricky (Zerna), Bugsy Promotion against Negros Billiard Stable. This reminds us of the battle between Lee Vann Corteza and Dennis Orcollo in the 2nd BSCP National Pool Championship semi-final round" said Raya Sports and Events President and BSCP chairman Yen Makabenta.
Fresh from winning the WTA 9-ball, the 25 yrs. old Zerna from Dumaguete City scored 10 points to topped the group A 10-ball event, his opponents are Eduardo "Pikoy" Villanueva (2 pts.), Edgar "Malabon"Acaba (5 pts.), double world champion Ronato "Volcano" Alcano (5 pts.), Roberto " Pinoy Superman" Gomez (1 pt.) and Carlo "Cool" Biado (4 pts.).
"Puspusan ang ginagawa kong paghahanda sa One Side billiard hall (Malate, Manila) at sana pumasok ang game plan namin ni coach Toper (Christopher Palses, NBS coach) sana pumanig ang bola sa akin" Zerna lamented.
While De Luna easily conquered group B in the 8-ball event with a huge margin, 2007 US Bar Table 9-Ball Champion and 8-Ball Champion Warren "Warrior" Kiamco and 2006 Sydney World Junior quarter-finalist Renemar "Revo" David, both have four points, 2005 Taiwan World 9-Ball semi-finalists Marlon "Marvelous" Manalo and 2006 Doha Asian Games 9-ball gold medalist and 8-ball silver medalist Antonio "Ga-Ga" Gabica has three points and two points for 2005 SMB Asian 9-ball tour Singapore leg winner Gandy "Sapsal" Valle.
"Bai (Ricky Zerna) is no pushover, i know his strength, he can be full of surprises but i'm ready and will do my very best to win the first match of the week" said the 23 yrs. old De Luna.
Zerna and De Luna received a cash prize of $800 after winning in the ring game event and whoever wins in their match will get $1,000.00 as the match of the week champion.
Grand finals champion of the said tournament on December 15 will bring home $12,000.00 while the second, third and fourth placer will received $5,000, $3,000.00 and $1,500.00 respectively.
Pool Showdown is a new TV sports program that will be aired in ABC-5 every Tuesday and Saturday is a joint program of Raya Sports and ABC Sports. Pool Showdown has three events (8-ball, 9-ball and 10-ball) in the ring game to be played as the players are selected by drawing lots.
(Reports from MARLON BERNARDINO)
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