FORMER WORLD 9-BALL Champion Alex "The Lion" Pagulayan alongside Antonio "Ga-Ga" Gabica, Dennis "Robocop" Orcollo and Joven "The Shark" Bustamante take on the mission to lead the Filipinos in stopping the Taiwanese domination in the second leg of the 2008 Guinness 9-Ball Tour starting, today, Friday at the G Hotel in Penang, Malaysia.
Pagulayan, also the 2005 US Open titlist, battles in the three-man group event which are composed of Ryu Seong Woo of Korea and Luong Chi-Dong of Vietnam, the 2005 Manila Southeast Asian Games 9-ball gold medalist.
"I hope to perform well in this event, medyo hindi kasi naging maganda performance natin sa nakalipas," said the Cabagan, Isabela native Pagulayan, who failed to make it to the knock-out stage in the kick off leg of Guinness in Taipei, Taiwan and Japan 9-Ball Open in Tokyo, Japan.
Gabica, the 2007 SMB-Solar Sports RP 9 Ball Open champion and 2007 Thailand Southeast Asian Games gold medallist, will test the mettle of Ibrahim Bin Amir of Malaysia in Group B along with and Bernard Tey of Singapore.
Bustamante, who is aiming to surpass his runner-up finish with first-leg winner Taiwanese Chang Jung-lin will square off Naoyuki Oi of Japan and Sumit Talwar of India in Group H.Chang, also the reigning Guinness 9-ball tour Grand Finale champion, who beat Lee Vann Corteza in the crown is in Group A together with Chinese sharpshooter Fu Jian-Bo and spiky-haired Thailand bet Nitiwat Kanjanasri.
Orcollo, on the other hand, who is fresh from winning the Quezon City 9-ball tour and Japan 9-ball Open are bracketed in Group E so called "group of death" in the company of former Asian 9-Ball tour over-all champion Yang Ching-shun of Chinese-Taipei and Ricky Yang of Indonesia.
A total of 24 Asian superstars are bracketed in Eight group, sanctioned by the Asian Professional Billards Union (APBU), the event will also have players from Malaysia , Indonesia , Singapore , Vietnam , Korea , Japan , Thailand , India and China.
Winners of each leg will take home US$ 15,000 while the Grand Final Champion will walk away with US$ 36,000.
The Guinness 9-Ball Tour is the only ranking tour in Asia for players to qualify for the WPA World Pool Championship and the top 10 finishers in the Tour's Order of Merit will automatically earn a slot for pool's most prestigious event, the 2007 WPA 9Ball Championship scheduled in November.
Telecast of Asia's premier pool competition will be carried LIVE on STAR Sports with fifteen hours of exhilarating competition from 4 April to 6 April 2008. This year, STAR Sports will complement its live broadcast with a 30-minute preview programme before each leg. Broadcast times are as follows:
Fri, 04 April, 2008 4.30pm (HKT) Preview show (30min)
Fri, 04 April, 2008 5.00pm (HKT) Joven Bustamante (PHI) vs Naoyuki Oi (JAP)
6.30pm (HKT) Ibrahim Amir (MAS) vs Antonio Gabica (PHI)
8.00pm (HKT) Chang Jung-Lin (TPE) vs Fu Jian-Bo (CHN)
Sat, 05 April, 2008 from 12.00pm (HKT)Quarterfinals (4 Matches)
Sun, 06 April, 2008 from 12.00am (HKT)Semifinals & Finals (3 Matches)
(Competition on Friday will start at 11am; TV Schedules subject to change without prior notice)
Contributed by MARLON BERNARDINO
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