ONLY three of the six Filipino top bets will stay in the Winner’s Side 3 of the 32nd Annual US Open 9-Ball in Chesapeake after six Pinoys arranged a fourth round showdown against each other.
Jose “Amang” Parica, Francisco “Django” Bustamante, Lee Van “The Slayer” Corteza, Warren Kiamco, Ronato “Volcano” Alcano and Efren “Bata” Reyes successfully toppled their respective opponents in the third round but unfortunately were paired to meet each other in the fourth round.
What is worse, two of the three winners will again face each other in the next round.
However, all the Pinoy masters will get a second chance as the event uses the double-elimination format.
Parica’s next assignment will be Bustamante; Corteza will next face Kiamco, while the most intriguing matchup will be between Reyes and Alcano, the master and the student.
The winner of the Kiamco vs. Corteza match will also face the winner of the Reyes vs. Alcano game.
Both Reyes and Alcano have won the WPC 9-Ball and 8-Ball crown. Alcano idolized Reyes so much that he said he had his teeth removed to emulate the Magician.
Other Pinoys
After Parica defeated Abdullah El Yousef 11-5, the US-based cue master handed Derek Leonard an 11-5 defeat. Bustamante, on the other hand, mastered Richie Orem, 11-5, then prevailed over Joel Gray, 11-8.
Corteza’s 11-9 win over Jason Klatt was followed by an 11-8 victory over Niel Feijen 11-8, while Kiamco handed Daniel Madden an 11-4 loss then toppled Dan Louie, 11-9.
For Alcano, after an easy 11-3 win over Paddy McLaughlin, Chris Bartnum did not pose any problem and he scored an easy 11-0 victory. Reyes, on the other hand, survived Marc Vidal then wove his magic over Alessandro Torrenti for an 11-3 victory.
Aside from the other six top bets who were slugging it out at press time two other Pinoys won their third round campaigns.
Dennis Orcullo topped Michael Dechaine, 11-5, then defeated David Hunt, 11-9, to march into the fourth round in the Winners Side 2 aganst Tony Crosby as of press time.
Rodolfo Luat, on the other hand, defeated Ceri Warts, 11-7, following his 11-8 win over Ivaylo Petrov. He was to play James Walden last night.
Alex Pagulayan meanwhile, was not as lucky as he lost to Louis Ulrich 7-11 and will have to bounce back from the One Loss Side 1 when he starts his campaign against Steve Moore. (RCM)
