Philippine's Brightest Take Charge In Guinness 9-ball Tour
TAIPEI, TAIWAN---THE Philippine's Brightest hope Jeffrey "The Bull" De Luna made three balls on the break and cleaned up the table in the 17th rack to escape a narrow 9-8 victory over Vietnam's Do Hoang Quan to open his bid in a bright note at the start of group stage of the annual tournament organized by ESPN STAR Sports dubbed as 2008 Guinness 9-ball tour here at the Taipei, Gymnasium yesterday.
"Talagang sinigurado ko na, baka matalo pa tayo. Actually dapat panalo na ako sa 15th frame pa lamang dahil 8-6 na ako kaso nag mintis ako kaya nakahabol pa siya at naka 8-all pa," said 2006 DOHA Asian Games Silver Medalist Jeffrey to his wife Ian in a long distance call.
Earlier, relying on his patented power breaks, the youthful Filipino was able to jump the gun early with a break and run out in the first rack followed by a string of five straight racks from the third frame to have an impressive 6-1 advantage against the little known Do.
However even with the odds already against him, the feisty Vietnamese refused give way as he pounced on a green six miscue by De Luna in the tenth frame to spark his own four rack run to climb back into contention at 6-7.
Another table rout in the 14th rack put the Filipino bet on the hill with the advantage of breaking for the match in the final frame. However a miscalculated approach to the pink four paved way to a muffed corner pocket attempt at the five ball, giving the unheralded Do one final crack at the table which saw him add to his score 7-8.
With the momentum shifting back to his side, the reigning Vietnam 8-ball and 9-ball National champion was able to push the contest to the limit, 8-8, with another masterful break and run-out.
But once again, De Luna's powerful break saved the day as he cued up perfectly to send the balls hurtling through to the pockets, creating the perfect table layout for the hard fought 9-8 victory.
Refusing to be outdone, another Filipino, Joven Bustamante, added further cause for celebration as he also came away with a first round victory - this time against one of the Philippines vaunted rivals, Chinese-Taipei.
Top ranked in the Taiwan leg competition field due to his impeccable quarterfinals finish at the recent WPA World Nine Ball Championships, Bustamante had little trouble in notching the 9-4 win away from Chinese-Taipei bet Chang Pei-Wei who surprisingly, had difficulty in finding his usually consistent rhythm and stroke.
Still, both De Luna and Bustamante, need to win their next group stage matchups to ensure safe passage through to the quarterfinals. De Luna is set to take on Thailand's Nitiwat Kanjanasri while Joven Bustamante will face off versus Malaysia's Alan Tan.
However, two other Filipino bets were unable to enjoy the same success as Marlon Manalo lost to Aaron Koh of Singapore, 6-9 while Antonio Gabica conceded both of his matches with losses against Indonesia's Budi Sumarno, 8-9, and last year's Tour Grand Finals Champion Chang Jung-Lin, 6-9 to be the first Filipino booted out of the $15,000.00 tournament.
Manalo on the other hand still has a chance to advance to the quarters if he manages to trump Chinese-Taipei's 2007 World Junior Champion Ko Pin Yi.
Actually Manalo is on the way to tie the match at 7-all in the 14th frame with three balls to go (7, 8 and 9-ball), however, he miss a tough right pocket long shot that gave Aaron an 8-6 commanding lead.
"Kung naipasok ko 'yung brown 7 ball ay tabla pa sana sa 7-all ang laro. Alternate break ang format kaya may pag-asa pa, yung ang turning point," said Manalo.
Battling Yang Ching-Shun as of press time is Alex Pagulayan, the 2004 WPA World Pool Champion.
Other results:
Satoshi Kawabata (JAP) bt. Han Hao Xiang (HKG), 9-6
Ricky Yang (INA) bt. Sumit Talwar (IND), 9-3
Yang Ching Shun (TPE) bt. Siaw Wieto, 9-3
Wu Chia Ching (TPE) bt. Sumit Talwar (IND), 9-3
Han Hao Xiang (HKG) bt. Toh Lian Han (SIN), 9-6.
Contributed by MARLON BERNARDINO
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