All set for SuperBalita 9-ball

IT'S all systems go for the 5th Sun.Star SuperBalita in cooperation with Phoenix Petroleum 9-Ball Challenge 1st National Open set on November 9 to 11 at the NCCC Mall activity center.

Tournament vice-chair Alger Dura, managing editor of Sun.Star Davao SuperBalita, bared this in Tuesday’s Davao Sportswriters Association (DSA) Forum at the Tower Inn.

"We are all set for our biggest tournament so far. This fifth edition stakes bigger cash prizes for the open category that expects some 128 players across the country. They will vie for the P100,000 top purse. The second to 16th placers will also receive cash prizes," Dura said.

The open runner-up will pocket P40,000, while the two semi-final losers will claim P15,000 each. The four quarter-final losers will each go home with P5,000, while the ninth to 16th placers will settle for P1,500 apiece.

Dura also said youth categories (mixed elementary boys and girls, mixed High School boys and girls, college men's and college women's) will also be featured. Medals, gift certificates and freebies await champions while runners-up will also get certificates and freebies.

Gandy Valle, meanwhile, is upbeat about the launch of the first national open, having had competed in the past four stagings of the Mindanao Open 9-Ball Challenge. The 1998 Asian Games gold medalist was the inaugural champion of the cuefest in 2008.

"I hope to win the first SuperBalita 9-ball national title as I won the first Mindanao Open. But I expect a tougher field this time since this is national in scope. Playing a national tournament in the Philippines is like competing in an Asian tournament or in the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games since Filipinos are really good in billiards," Valle said.

He welcomes, however, the challenge even urging his fellow Mindanaoans to give their best in the tournament.

Manila-based Valle, who came home to spend the holidays with his family, added: "It's going to be a challenge for me as a Dabawenyo and as a Mindanaoan to play on top of my game. I make sure to practice with great Davao talents during my vacation as part of my preparations for the tournament."

Tournament director Menlee Migellano, president of the Davao Billiards Association Inc. (DBAI), for his part, said the open eliminations will be a race-to-seven, knockout format while the youth event will be a race-to-four competition.

Migellano said in the vernacular, "We will have to adjust the format of the quarter-finals, semi-finals and championship depending on the availability of time."

The international 9-ball rules shall be applied in the annual cuefest organized by Sun.Star Davao Publishing Inc., co-presented by Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc. and supported by the Philippine Sports Commission.

Registration is going on at Sun.Star Davao office. Open entry fee is P850 plus five SuperBalita mastheads. For youth categories, a participant will just have to submit five Sun.Star Davao mastheads and certificate of enrollment.

The tournament is also sponsored by Deca Homes, Camella, Aeon Towers, Alaxan FR, SkyCable and NCCC Mall of Davao. Other supporters are Visuals in Motion Advertising, The Royal Mandaya Hotel, Pizzeria Michelangelo, King King Copper Gold Project, Davao Light & Power Co., LP Global Network, Mamma Maria's Pizzeria, Concentrix Charmix, Mindavote, Vice-Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte, city government of Davao, Boy Cherry Billiard Center, Dexter's Pizza and Rep. Mylen Garcia.