Although three of RP’s "Dirty Dozen" dropped out of the hunt for the top $500,000 purse (P25 million) in this $3 million event featuring the world’s finest cue masters with stinging setbacks, nine Filipinos joined 51 others in the last 60 stage where they are grouped into 12 of five players with the top three advancing to the fourth round.
Bustamante, enjoying top form after teaming up with former world 9-ball champion Efren "Bata" Reyes to win the inaugural World Cup of Pool in Wales recently, edged Nick Van Den Berg, 8-7, blasted Carl Morris, 8-2, and Ben Nunan, 8-2, held off Hung Ming-chu, 8-5, and thumped Tang Hoa, 8-2, to head Group 66 in the third round.
That includes Alex Pagulayan, the 2004 world 9-ball champion, who finished second to Tony Robles in Group 53 with three victories against two losses, while Reyes struggled in the early going in Group 44 but pulled through just the same with three wins against two setbacks to place second to Chris Melling.
Ramil Gallego, Dennis Orcollo and Antonio Lining posted four victories each in their respective groups to advance, while Ronnie Alcano, Rodolfo Luat and US-based Jose "Amang" Parica scrambled their way to earn berths in the next round where each player is assured of $15,000.
Luat, winner of the recent San Miguel Asian Tour leg, came through with only two wins against three setbacks but salvaged a spot in the third round by beating Michael Zimmerman and Thomas Kennedy for the last berth in Group 58.
Three other RP bets, however, failed to advance, including IPT North American 8-ball Open runner-up Marlon Manalo, who struggled with only one win in Group 42 while dropping four matches, Warren Kiamco, who had two wins against three losses in Group 41, and US-based Santos Sambajon, who scored three wins in Group 47 but lost the battle for third and last berth to David Matlock in a tiebreak.
The RP pool masters, however, are expected to have their hands full in the third round Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) with Bustamante and Pagulayan to go up against the likes of Americans Jason Kirkwood and Tony Chohan and Japanese Furuta Kazuo in Group 66.
Reyes heads Group 70 that includes veteran campaigner Johnny Archer of the US, Daryl Peach of Great Britain, Yannick Beaufils and Jayson Shaw, while Orcollo hopes to sustain his run against fancied German Ralf Souquet, Marko Lohtander, Matlock and Melling in Group 62.
Alcano is bunched with Ben Davies, Darren Appleton, Hung Ming-chu and Imran Majid in Group 65; Luat is in Group 68 with Dutch ace Niels Feijen and Americans Larry Nevel, Gabriel Owen and Jason Miller; Gallego fights it out with Michael Hill, Steve Moore, Nick Varner and Charles Williams in Group 69; while Parica guns for one of the berths in the fourth round against former world 9-ball champion Oliver Ortmann, Rico Diks and Nick van den Berg of the Netherlands, and Taiwanese Hsia Hui-kai.