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Saturday, August 05, 2006
Luat, Bustamante start strong in Kaohsiung 9-ball tourney
Rodolfo Luat conquered jet-lag and won the first match of the third leg of the 2006 San Miguel Beer Asian 9-Ball Tour at the Kaohsiung Business Exhibition Center in Taiwan yesterday.
Luat, the newest member of the Philippine San Miguel Asian 9-ball squad, defeated local Taiwanese bet Wang Hung-Hsiang 9-3 in Group 6.
Francisco “Django” Bustamante, the only Filipino not facing a Taiwanese in the group stage, also bagged his opening match against Thai bet, Amnuayporn Chotipong 9-4.
Grueling trip
Luat arrived in Kaohsiung Thursday afternoon after a grueling stop-over trip back to Manila following his IPT 8-Ball stint in Las Vegas.
Luat then drew the earliest match at 12 noon for the group stage during the players meeting on Thursday to start the Philippine campaign yesterday.
Though visibly tired, the Filipino delivered a remarkable performance against Wang, a semifinalist in this year's Ho Chi Minh leg.
"I knew Wang is a very good player so I saw that I had to perform my best and win my first match to stand a chance in qualifying for the next round," said Luat after his victory.
Must win
Luat needed to beat Ricky Yang to assure himself a place in the quarterfinals. He was set to take on the Indonesian player later in the afternoon.
Two other Filipinos, headed by first leg champion Efren "Bata" Reyes, were waiting to take on separate foes as of press time.
Reyes was going to clash with another local bet, Nien Rong-Chi over in Group 3 while Gandy Valle was going to test the skills of defending tour champion Yang Ching-Shun.
Ramil Gallego, the 2006 Bangkok leg winner was also battling Chan Keng-kwang of Singapore in Group 1.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (August 4, 2006 issue)
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