Bata, Django off to hot start in Taiwan leg

KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan — Filipino pool idols Efren "Bata" Reyes and Francisco "Django" Bustamante masterminded a pair of routs yesterday at the Kaohsiung Business Center here.

Reyes, the reigning back-to-back overall champion, opened his bid for a sixth leg title in the San Miguel Asian 9-Ball Tour with a cold-blooded 9-2 route of Wang Hung-Hsiang of Taiwan. He will next face Ibrahim Bin Amir of Malaysia, a 9-3 winner over Wanshana Poomjaeng of Thailand.

The opening round winners were guaranteed $1,250 and a shot at the $10,000 top purse in the tournament sponsored by San Miguel and organized by ESPN STAR Sports.

The 50-year-old Reyes, who shared top spot in the year’s Order of Merit with compatriot Gandy Valle after the first two legs, raced to a 7-0 lead before his game but overmatched foe managed to chalk one on his score sheet.

His co-leader, on the other hand, absorbed a 9-4 beating from Japanese heavyweight Satoshi Kawabata.

Valle, the Singapore leg winner, trailed 2-6 early and offered token resistance the rest of the way.

Another Japanese Kunihiko Takahashi also advanced after turning back eighth seed Patrick Ooi of Malaysia, 9-5.

Takahashi will next go up against Chan Keng-Kwang of Singapore, who disposed of Chu Hung-Ming of Taiwan, 9-5.

While Reyes had the strongest start in the opening round, Bustamante provided the most blazing finish.

The former world No. 1 took the last seven racks to dispatch another home bet Kuo Po-Cheng, 9-2, and forge a second round duel with one-time tormentor Alok Kumar of India, a 9-4 winner over Filipino qualifier Leonardo "Dodong" Andam.

Bustamante observed. "Nanggigil siguro dahil gustong makahabol agad."

Bustamante clustered three rack winners to take a 5-2 lead before the five-minute break.

Kuo was no longer in his elements after the lull as Bustamante won two more frames for a commanding 7-2 spread.

The Taiwanese had a chance to stem the bleeding on the 10th, but bad preparation on the orange five allowed Bustamante to clean up and reach the hill at 8-2.

The second seeded Bustamante came up dry on his break on the 11th, but Kuo sealed his own doom after missing a textbook mid-range shot on No. 4 with the table offering an easy layout.

"Mag-iingat na ako ngayon kay Kumar. Alam ko na ngayon na may tira s’ya," said Bustamante, who is still eyeing his first leg title in the three-year-old tour.

"Sana magtuluy-tuloy ang magandang laro ko. Nakakahiya na kay Sir Putch (Puyat Sports boss Aristeo "Putch" Puyat) at sa organizer dahil lagi akong seeded pero Œdi pa nanalo."

Qualifier Ronnie Alcano, who lost to Reyes in chess an hour before the opening round, joined his more illustrious compatriots in the next phase after beating Vietnamese Nguyen Thanh Nam, 9-5.

The match pitting Filipino qualifier Christopher Bombita against Yudarman Kamarudin of Indonesia is ongoing as of press time.

It wasn’t exactly a bad day for the host country as Wu Chia-Ching downed Chatchawan Rutphae of Thailand, 9-4, and third seed Yang Ching-Shun trounced Ryu Seung Woo of Korea, 9-3. (NOLI CRUZ).