Django, Pagulayan land in round of 64

One Filipino has gone down but two more local top guns made the knockout stage, raising hopes for a Filipino title in the 2007 World Pool Championship.

Brandishing hot cue sticks, Francisco “Django” Bustamante and Alex Pagulayan had relatively easy time joining Efren “Bata” Reyes and Ronnie Alcano in the Round of 64 to the delight of the hometown crowd at the Araneta Coliseum.

Ramil “Bebeng” Gallego was not to be outdone, matching Bustamante’s and Pagulayan’s two-game sweeps to become the seventh Filipino to advance past the elims.

Lee Van Corteza reached the next round via a three-game rout, making it 4-of-5 for the Filipinos in Day Two of the $400,000 tourney.

Antonio “Nikoy” Lining became the first casualty in the 15-man RP contingent, unable to overcome the tough challenge in the Group of Death.

Bustamante did as the 2001 WPC runner-up thundered past South Africa’s Vaic Zbynek, 9-4, and Korea’s Jeong Young-hwa, 9-0.

So impressive was Bustamante against Jeong that he allowed the Korean to take the table just twice – first during the lag and second when the Filipino ace fouled after a push in the seventh game.

“I already had the feel of the speed of the table in my second match,” said Bustamante on his blanking of Jeong.

Pagulayan, the 2004 champion, fashioned out the same win right in his first match against Hamsa Moh Saeed Ali. He followed it up with a 9-6 thrashing of Austria’s Martin Kempter.

Gallego also had a safe journey to the next round, whipping Singapore’s Chang Keng Kwang, 9-4, then smashing Taiwan’s Chang Jung Liang, 9-1.

Corteza got off to a fumbling start, beaten by Serbia’s Goran Miladenovic, 7-9. But the former SEA Games gold medalist booked a seat in the next round just the same by beating Taiwanese Chang Pei-wei and American Jeremy Jones both by five racks.

The Corteza-Chang match took a long while to finish with the Taiwanese protesting a game-point for the Filipino citing a technicality while staring at a 4-7 deficit. After a lengthy discussion, officials upheld the game-point for Corteza.

Corteza went on to win the next two racks to finish it at 9-4.

Lining had a chance to salvage a slot in the next round but dropped his do-or-die match to American Corey Deuel, 7-9.

A partner of Bustamante in their gold-medal feat in the Busan Asiad 9-ball event, Lining was upended by Jeong, 8-9, in their opening match. He set up a you-or-me setto with Deuel following a 9-1 rout of Vaic.

He raced to a 7-3 lead against Deuel only to lose the next six racks.