Mika Immonen and Ralf Souquet, the visiting squad‚s 1-2 punch in the series pitting the best pool players of Europe against the local aces, hold the 1-2 position in the 2003 WPA rankings with 1260 and 1237 points, respectively, while Francisco "Django" Bustamante and Efren "Bata" Reyes are in Nos. 3 and 4 with 990 and 825 ranking points, respectively.
Throw in their support crew: Dutch Niels Feijen and Swede Marcus Chamat for Europe and Warren Kiamco and Antonio Lining for the local side – and the five-day event truly boasts of a powerful cast that could ensure a spirited battle for prestige, pride and honor.
The games event will be telecast live over Studio 23.
A top purse of $15,000 is at stake in the $33,000 event put up by ABS-CBN as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations. Under the format, the Filipinos will play against the Europeans in a single-round robin, race-to-7 affair elimination round.
The top two players from each team will then advance to the crossover semis with the No. 1 Filipino player clashing with Europe’s No. 2 and the top-ranking player from Europe tangling with the local bet’s second-ranked player in a pair of race-to-11 matches.
The championship will be a race-to-13 affair, also under the alternate break format, with the winner running away with the $15,000 purse. The second placer will get $10,000 while the third and fourth finishers will receive $5,000 and $3,000, respectively.
For sure, Reyes and company will be hardpressed to trounce the visiting squad the way they did in the recent Asian 9-ball tour which they dominated with the 49-year-old former world champion bagging the $20,000 top purse by beating Kiamco in an all-Filipino final.
But it will be an entirely different field with the talented Immonen expected to flash the form that won him the 2001 world pool crown. So do Souquet, who is coming off a victory in the Euro 8-ball; Feijen, the current Finland Open champion; and Chamat, the least-ranked player in the fold but who could provide the spark for the visiting squad.
Kiamco, the 1999 Asian champion, kicks off RP bid against Souquet at 6 p.m. Wednesday with Reyes taking on Chamat at 7 p.m. Both games will be telecast live over Studio 23.
Lining then plays Immonen in the third game set at 8 p.m. while Bustamante, who lost to American ace Earl Strickland in last year‚s world pool championship, battles Feijen at 9 p.m. Both games will be aired on a delayed basis starting 10:30 p.m.