FILIPINOS Francisco "Django" Bustamante, Ronato "Volcano" Alcano and Lee Vann "The Slayer" Corteza spearheads the Philippine campaign at the start today of the 33rd Annual U.S. Open 9-Ball Championship at the Chesapeake Conference Center in Chesapeake, Virginia.
Joining them in the longest running 9-ball event in the United States are countrymen Jose "Amang" Parica, Marlon "Marvelous" Manalo, Ramil "Bebeng" Gallego, Warren "Warrior" Kiamco, Rodolfo "Boy Samson" Luat, Santos "The Saint" Sambajon and Joven Alba in mixing up with the field of close to 300 players from all over the world for the guaranteed total prize of $250,000, including the champion purse of $40,000.
Alcano, who was a runner-up to American Shane "The South Dakota Kid" van Boening last year, is hoping to become the third Filipino to win the prestigious event after Pool Maestro Efren "Bata" Reyes (1994) and Alex "The Lion" Pagulayan (2005).
Luat, on the other hand settled for second place to American John Schmidt in the 2006 edition.
Aside from defending champion van Boening, four current world champions from Europe are also competing in the US Open 9-ball. They are Daryl Peach (2007 WPA World Nine-Ball Champion) and Darren "Dynamite" Appleton (2008 WPA World Ten-Ball Champion) of Great Britain, Ralf "Kaiser" Souquet (2008 WPA World Eight-Ball Champion) of Germany and Niels "The Terminator" Feijen (2008 WPA World Straight Pool-14.1 Champion) of the Netherlands.
contributed by MARLON BERNARDINO
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