FORMER World Champions Alex Pagulayan and Ronato Alcano topped their respective brackets in the qualifying round to advance in the main draw of Qatar Open 9-Ball tournament June 29 to July 5 at the Qatar Billiards and Snooker Federation, Al Muntazah Road in Doha, Qatar.
The Cabagan, Isabela native Pagulayan, the 2004 WPA World 9-Ball Titlist and 2005 US Open beat compatriot and Cebu native Israel "Amay" Rota, 7-4, to rules Group 6.
Alcano, the lanky-cue artists from Calamba, Laguna, who is also the 2006 WPA World 9-Ball Champion and 2007 WPA World World 8-Ball ruler stuns Mohanna OBaidly, 7-1, to dominate Group 5 division.
Actually, expect more Filipinos in the tournament proper today after sweeping all qualifying event on Friday (A qualifying tournament gets going yesterday.
Allan Cuartero bested 2007 WPA World 9-Ball finalist Roberto Gomez, 7-2, in Group 1,
Ruben Cuna stopped the winning ways of snooker specialist Benjie Guevarra, 7-1, in Group 2, Joven Bustamante beat Monaza Belardo, 7-1, in Group 3, Vicente Joyme beat Ibrahim Al Ahmad, 7-1, in Group 4.
Gandy Valle, who hails from Davao City and fresh from winning of Villar Cup Cebu leg last weekends is hoping to make it to the cut today playing in the last qualifying round yesterday. Valle bowed to Ahmad, 7-6, who beat Joyme, nephew of Rolly "Lando" Vicente of Puyat Sports in the finals of Group 4.
Pool maestro Efren "Bata" Reyes, Francisco "Django" Bustamante, World No.1 Dennis "Robocop" Orcollo, Ramil "Bebeng" Gallego, Marlon "Marvelous" Manalo, Jeffrey "The Bull" De Luna, and reigning national champion Lee Vann "The Slayer" Corteza took a bye in the first round.
Billiards and Snooker Congress of the Philippines (BSCP) president Ernesto Fajardo is very optimistic that our Filipino pool wizards will perform well in the said event "We are very confident that our Filipino pool athletes will perform well in the Qatar World 9-Ball Open,"
Meanwhile, Leonardo "Dodong Dadiangas" Andam is expect to beat his first round opponent against local bet Ahmed Al Sada and if he prevails, another former WPA 9-Ball and 8-Ball ruler Wu Chia-ching of Taiwan is waiting in the next round. Warren "Warrior" Kiamco, on the other hand will face Dharminder Lilly of India while Antonio "Ga-Ga" Gabica will square off Qualifier 1.
Around 96 players will see action in this $150,000 total pot prize event that offers $40,000 to the winner. They will be divided into eight groups with 12 players each. They will play in a double elimination, alternate break, race-to-nine format. Four players from each group will qualify – two from the winner's bracket and two from the loser's bracket.A formidable cast of foreign participants from Europe and the United States also in the main draw. Ralf Souquet, Thomas Engert, Oliver Ortmann and Thorsten Hohmann of Germany, Radoslaw Babica of Poland, Konstantin Stepanov of Russia, Niels Fejen of the Netherlands, Fabio Petroni of Italy, Marcus Chamat of Sweden and Johnny Archer and Shane Van Boening of the US are also the favorites in the tournament. Also include reigning WPA World 9-Ball Titlist Daryl Peach of Great Britain.
contributed by MARLON BERNARDINO
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