Like in his botched bids in the first three legs of the five-stage series, Bustamante blew several scoring opportunities against the Singaporean, uncharacteristically wavered in some stretches and then failed to unleash his world-famous break when he needed it most.
By the end of the match, the 40-year old Tarlac native was in a situation by now familiar to him — watching from the sidelines while five other Filipino cue artists, led by Efren ‘Bata’ Reyes, pursue their respective bids in the $10,000 top prize in this event organized by the ESPN Star Sports Events Management Group.
"Wala, ayaw talaga bigyan ng suwerte," said Bustamante, by this time already used to such kind of a feeling. "Palagi akong ganyan dito. Kung hindi suwerte ang kalaban, sobrang ganda ng laro. Ang tira ko naman, tirang saranggola."
The loss marked Bustamante’s earliest exit in this $250,000 series that kicked off in Singapore in February. It also was the fourth time in as many legs that the former world pool championship runner-up failed to get past the first three rounds.
Reyes also flirted with disaster, but fought back from a 2-5 deficit to pull off a 9-5 win over Indonesia’s Alwi, a cue artist born and raised in Surigao. He was formerly known as Anastacio Uriarte before migrating to Sabah.
Four other Filipinos cruised into the second round of the 32-man event which plays under the knockout style, alternate break format.
Leonardo Andam, playing in this series for the first time this year, eased past Nguyen Thanh Nam of Vietnam, 9-8; Warren Kiamco ousted Singapore’s William Ang, 9-6; Antonio Gabica devoured Patrick Ooi Fook Yuen of Malaysia, 9-3, while Lee Van Corteza took out India’s Alok Kumar, 9-6.
Bustamante actually was not the only big name to go in the first round. Just minutes earlier, he sat on the stands while former world champion and hometown hero Chao Fong Pang got booted out by Vu Trong Khai of Vietnam, 9-8.
Four Taiwanese bets remained in the hunt, led by Hsia Hui Kai — a 9-1 winner over Hong Kong’s Fung Kwok Wai — and Yang Ching Shun, the winner of the Hong Kong stop last month who easily dispatched Hisashi Yamamoto of Japan, 9-5.