Bata, Django start bid in Asian 9-ball

A total of $100,000 will be laid down on the green felt table when the two-day Manila leg of the San Miguel Asian 9-Ball Tour begins today with the top 32 players from 13 Asian countries strutting their wares at the Pearl Plaza billiards hall in Parañaque City.

Six Filipino cue artists, led by 1999 world champion Efren "Bata" Reyes and reigning world No. 3 Django Bustamante, will defend the home court as they see action in today’s opening rounds–a straight knockout, alternate break, race-to-nine affair.

Yang Ching Shun of Taipei won the kickoff leg in Singapore last March. The succeeding legs supposed to be held in Vietnam, Hong Kong and Taipei were cancelled due to the SARS outbreak in the region, forcing organizers to double the winner’s prize to $20,000 here in Manila.

The top 10 players after the tour will earn automatic slots to the prestigious World Pool Championship in Cardiff, Wales, in July.

The field was divided into two brackets of 16 players each with Reyes being drawn on the right side along with countrymen Rodolfo Luat and Antonio Lining. Bustamante will lead the charge in the other bracket along with Leonardo Andam and Warren Kiamco.

They will all see action today with Luat facing the most difficult task against Taipei’s Fong Pang Chao, the 2000 world champion. Lining trades shots with Ibrahim Bin Amir of Malaysia while Reyes, who recently threw his hat into the showbiz arena, faces Eddie Ang Kee Tian of Singapore.

Andam will be pitted against Kuan Choon Yan of Malaysia, Kiamco against Fung Kwok Wai of Hong Kong, and Bustamante, a gold medalist in last year’s Busan Asian Games like Lining, against a player he’s never seen in his life—Freddie Soh Chye of Singapore.

"Ni hindi ko kilala. Kahit na ‘yung mga iba pa sa bracket namin. Pagandahan na lang ang tira. Pero tiyak, magagaling din lahat ‘yan," said Bustamante, known in the world pool circuit as the player with the most powerful break the game has ever seen.

The winner gets $20,000, runner-up $10,000, losing semifinalists $6,000 and losing quarterfinalists $3,500. Today’s winners will be assured of a $2,500 paycheck with the losers going home with $1,500. Players will be given 45 seconds to take each shot or face a $50 penalty.

"Okay lang na na-doble ang premyo. Ang problema lang eh 30 percent naman ang tax.