Saturday, November 03, 2007 Cue masters start campaign for World Pool title today
MANILA - Defending champion Ronato Alcano starts his bid to defend his world title as the World Pool Championship opens at the Araneta Coliseum today.
Other Filipino winners, 1999 champion Efren “Bata” Reyez and 2004 champion Alex Pagulayan, are seeking to become the first Filipino to win the crown twice.
The three Pinoy cue artists remain heavy favorites among a field of 128 pool players from 45 countries vying for the $100,000 top purse in the $400,000 annual WPC held here for the second straight year.
Alcano, who defeated Germany’s Ralf Souquet in the finals last year at the Philippine International Convention Center, leads the relatively easy group 1.
Reyes, who is in group 6, will be facing a lighter opponent in Kenichi Uchigaki of Japan in the first day of the elimination phase.
Uchigaki reached the main draw by defeating Vietnam’s Do Huang Quan, 9-3, in the second of 10 qualifying events at the Star Billiards Center in Quezon City.
Luck
“At the scale of 1 to 100, I’m at least 80 percent ready. But still I wish for the best of luck. In the game of billiards, luck is also a big factor,” said the Laguna-native Alcano.
Alcano picked new American sensation Shane Van Boening as the heavy favorite in the tournament, along with Dennis Orcullo and 2006 runner-up Ralf Souquet of Germany.
Pagulayan is bracketed in group 8 and is expected an easy sailing to the round of 64 since only 4 of 8 players in each of the 16 groups will advance to the next knockout round.
“Ang hirap kasi dito, ako palagi ang gusto ng lahat na makalaban. Kaya hindi nawawala ang pressure sa akin,” said the 53-year-old legend “Bata” Reyes, who was enshrined to the Billiards Congress of America Hall of Fame in 2005.
But, Francisco “Django” Bustamante, who lost to American Earl Strickland in the finals in 2002 in Cardiff, Wales, is facing a tough task in the “Group of Death”, group 9.
The group is composed of 1995 champion Oliver Ortmann of Germany, American Corey Deuel, Korean Jeong Young-Hwa, Vietnam’s Pham Tuan Ngoc, Ireland’s John Wims, South African Wesi Morake and compatriot Antonio Lining. (FCC)
