Bata on a roll, Luat unscathed in All-Japan bash

Efren "Bata" Reyes continued his winning ways on the first two days of the 34th All-Japan Championship in Amagasaki City, beating his Japanese opponents comfortably in both matches.

Rodolfo "Boy Samson" Luat also remained unbeaten but Francisco "Django" Bustamante, a semifinalist in the recent World Pool League in Warsaw, Poland, dropped to the losers’ bracket after being beaten in a close match, 9-8, by Chinese-Taipei’s Chen Wei-chih.

In his opening match, Reyes, who won the World Pool League title a week after winning the richest purse of $160,000 in the Tokyo 9-Ball international tournament, played scintillating pool to beat Akihiro Asakuma, 9-0.

On Day 2 of the tournament at the Hotel New Archaic, Reyes, his reputation as "The Magician" enhanced by his recent string of spectacular victories against some of the greatest players in the world, defeated Haruyoshi Hinokiyama, 9-6, to move into the next round along with Luat.

Luat also whipped Japan’s Masashi Kiyokawa on opening day, 9-0, before edging another Japanese, Mitsuaki Itsuno, 9-7, in his second match.

There was no word on the fate of the other Filipino players — Antonio Lining, Warren Kiamco and Ramil Gallego, who were among the competitors alongside such greats as five-time world champion Earl Strickland, World Pool champion Mika Immonen, former world champion Johnny Archer and former European champion Ralf Souquet.