Magical run continues

Efren "Bata" Reyes sustained his amazing run of victories over the past month by winning the coveted World Pool League title and the top prize of $15,000, beating eight of the greatest players in the world who were invited to the tournament in Warsaw, Poland.

Reyes was initially not in the roster of participants but businessman-sportsman Aristeo "Putch" Puyat who, together with elder brother Jose Puyat have sponsored Reyes and the other top Filipinos through the years, requested organizers to invite Reyes in addition to Francisco "Django" Bustamante to match the two British players invited, Davis and last year’s World Pool League champion Steve Knight.

Fresh from his record-breaking $160,000 triumph in the Tokyo 9-Ball International tournament last week, Reyes dropped only one match on his way to winning the title in Poland.

After an epic encounter with countryman Francisco "Django" Bustamante in the semifinals which he won, 7-6, Reyes met British snooker ace Steve Davis, the conqueror of World Pool champion Mika Immonen in the finals.

Reyes had lost his final Group 2 match to Immonen but made no mistake against Davis, winning, 9-5. Reyes raced to a 4-1 lead but Davis, using a clinical attack and defensive guile evened the score at 5-5 before a standing room only crowd at the University of Warsaw arena.

But Reyes was not to be denied. He soon began to get the feel of the table and with some spectacular shots ran out the next four racks while Davis watched helplessly.

In a post-match interview Reyes was his usual modest self. He said, "I was lucky tonight because Steve made a couple of mistakes and left the balls out for me. I always like to play him because he is such a good player. I am delighted to have won this tournament in front of such a great crowd."

Davis, for his part, referred to their classic battle in last year’s World Pool Championship in Cardiff which the snooker ace won.