Corteza joins 15 other Phl bets in Last 64

MANILA, Philippines - Reigning National Open champion Lee Vann Corteza subdued Marcus Chamat of Sweden, 9-6, in a do-or-die match in Group L to salvage a spot in the Last 64 of the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) World 9-Ball Championship at the Al Sadd Sports Club in Doha, Qatar Tuesday night.

Former double world champion Ronnie Alcano also breezed through the main draw as he ripped Nguyen Phuo Long of Vietnam, 9-1, in Group M, while Oliver Medenilla held off Nguyen Phuong Thao of Vietnam, 9-6, in Group G to arrange a duel with Corteza in the first round of the knockout stage.

A total of 16 Filipinos, headed by pool legend and former champion Efren “Bata” Reyes and reigning titlist Francisco “Django” Bustamante, made it to the Last 64, a single round, race-to-11 knockout format.

 The other Filipino bets who advanced were Antonio Gabica, Caneda Villamor, Roberto Gomez, Venancio Tanio, Joven Alba, Israel Rota and Raymond Faraon.

Gabica won over Fu Jian Bo of China, 9-8, in Group B; Villamor beat Lee Gun Kae of Korea, 9-7, in Group D; Gomez routed Christian Tuvi of Uruguay, 9-4, in Group E; Tanio toppled Lee Chen Man of Hongkong, 9-4, in Group I; Alba downed Sundeep Gulat of India, 9-4, in Group J; Rota edged Bader Al Awadi of Kuwait, 9-8, in Group K; and Faron demolished Mohammad Al Hazmi of Kingdom of Saudia Arabia, 9-3, in Group M.

Bustamante and Reyes advanced to the tournament proper as they hurdled their first two games in their respective groups along with Dennis Orcollo, Carlo Biado, Jeffrey de Luna, Allan Cuartero and Antonio Lining.

Bustamante takes on Sascha-Andrej Tege of Germany; Reyes squares off with Carlos Cabello of Spain; while Orcollo mixes it up with Muhammad Zulfikri of India in three of the featured matches at the start of the knockout phase.

In other pairings, it will be Tanio vs Nick van den Berg of the Netherlands; Biado vs Takhti Zarekani of Iran; Gabica vs Mika Immonen of Finland; Cuartero vs Ahmad Taufiq Murni of Brunei; Joven Alba vs Chang Jun-lin of Chinese-Taipei;

Alcano vs Chris Orme of the USA; Rota vs Chang Yu-lun of Chinese-Taipei; Lining vs Oliver Ortmann of Germany; De Luna vs Fu Che wei of Chinese-Taipei; Gomez vs Daryl Peach of Great Britain; and Faraon vs Stephan Cohen of France.