Bata, Andam enter round of 32; Django out

Contrary to their popular TV ad, Efren "Bata" Reyes and Francisco "Django" Bustamante won’t see each other in the World Pool Championship final in Cardiff, Wales after the latter failed to match the former’s surge and bowed out in the first round of the knockout stage Wednesday.

But if it’s any consolation, Leonardo "Dodong" Andam and Antonio Lining might fill in the void as they pulled off victories in varying fashion to join the very player picked to win the championship — Reyes — and 29 others in the next round of the world’s premier pool event.

But it’s still a long way to go to even think of the championship.

In fact, Reyes, the spearhead of the Puyat Sports-backed RP contingent who emerged the player his peers would like to win the world’s premier 9-ball event in a survey conducted Tuesday, continued to dish out big games, will need at least six victories in gruelling, nerve-wracking one-on-one duels to make a return trip to the final although he started it with an emphatic 9-3 victory over Singaporean Tiong Boon Tan.

The 1999 champion clashes with Niels Feijen of The Netherlands, who beat Quinten Hann of Australia, 9-7, in their own side of the race-to-9 clash in the event that had seen the ouster of defending champion Chao Fong-pang, top American players Corey Deuel and Kim Davenport and Bustamante.

The 38-year-old Bustamante never recovered from a slow start and absorbed a stinging 6-9 loss to Tony Drago of Malta, a pro snooker player seeking his first title in the pool event.

Drago, 36, pounced on the Filipino’s poor start and raced to an 8-3 lead despite poor stint on the breaks. But Bustamante fought back to win the next three racks as the crowd at the Cardiff International Arena and the Filipino fans who stayed up until early Thursday morning braced for an explosive comeback by last year’s RP 9-ball champion.

But Bustamante failed to get position on the 2-ball after a break in the 15th game, and a poor kick shot enabled Drago to complete the upset victory over one of the fancied players in the fold.

Ramil Gallego fell short of his bid to humble the top-ranked player in the field as he bowed to Earl Strickland of the US, 9-8, and joined Bustamante and earlier ousted compatriots Rodolfo Luat and Warren Kiamco in the sidelines.

Andam, who beat Reyes in the final of last year’s San Miguel Beer International Masters Challenge at the Casino Filipino, whipped Australian Johl Younger, 9-5, to arrange a round of 32 match with Satoshi Kawabata of Japan, who prevailed over Mexican bet Ernesto Dominguez, 9-4.

While Reyes and Andam cruised to victories, Lining had to struggle and needed some luck to nip Japanese Hisashi Yamamota, 9-8, although he will have his hands full against German Oliver Ortmann, who downed American Allen Hopkins, 9-3, in the next round.

The event is telecast live by ESPN Star Sports, the world leader in sports, with the second session of the round of 32 matches aired at 2 a.m. today. The replay of the first session, shown late last night, is slated at 11 a.m. today with the second session to be replayed at 5:30 p.m.

The round of 16 matches will be aired at 9 tonight with the second session slated at 2 a.m.

Chao, who beat Mexican Ismael Paez in the final last year, lost to Englishman Anthony Ginn, 8-9; Deuel was ambushed by Finnish Mika Immonen, 3-9; while Davenport was upset by German Ralph Eckert, 9-8.