Sunday, June 22, 2008 Reyes, Django ousted By Edri K. Aznar Sun.Star Staff Reporter
IT WAS a day of upset as two billiard greats, Efren “Bata” Reyes and Francisco “Django” Bustamante, were eliminated from the Open Division of the 1st Senate President Manny Villar Cup–Sun.Star Superbalita 9-Ball Challenge yesterday at the Trade Hall of SM City Cebu.
What the audience witnessed was a different “Bata” from that of the other day as he suffered a lopsided loss against the much younger Edgie Geronimo, 9-1.
After a bunch of mistakes and fouls from Reyes and a series of excellent breaks by Geronimo, the latter found himself in an 8-1 commanding lead over the former world champion.
The large audience was back to being lively as Reyes won a rack from Geronimo, 8-1, but it was short lived because Reyes was unlucky when the cue ball dropped to the pocket after his shot on the eight, giving Geronimo an easy victory.
“I got lucky with my shots and my break was good,” said Geronimo about his win.
Reyes, the 1999 World Pool champion and one of the favorites to win his first event in Cebu, offered no excuses about his loss.
“Any one can win here because everyone here is good. It’s not that I had a problem with my game, my opponent was just good,” Reyes told Sun.Star Cebu in Tagalog.
Geronimo’s superb win against Reyes was premature though as he was later eliminated from the race by Michael Feliciano in 9-1 racks.
On the other hand, it was a battle of Bustamantes as Joven got the better of Francisco “Django,” 9-6.
Francisco started strong early with a 4-1 advantage but Joven swiftly fought back to tie the game at 4 apiece by cleaning up the rack.
Momentum
It was then a neck-to-neck battle as both players traded rackes and were tied at six each. But then the tides turned as the older Bustamante scratched the cue ball from his break and Joven capitalized by running out the entire rack for his first lead of the game at 7-6.
With the momentum by his side and with his accurate shooting, Joven won the next two racks and the 9-6 victory.
Bustamante and Reyes joined former champion Ronato Alcano and Warren Kiamco, who were eliminated in the first day, in the sidelines.
Joven next faces Sun.Star Superbalita 9-Ball Challenge defending champion Alex Pagulayan in the quarterfinals.
Other matches in the quarterfinals are Carlo Biado against former Asian Games gold medalist Gandy Valle; Lee Van Corteza against 2003 and 2006 Sun.Star Superbalita titleholder Dennis Orcullo and Roberto Gomez against Feliciano.
Earlier, Biado prevailed against Ramil Gallego 9-7; Pagulayan crushed Benjie Guevarra, 9-2; Valle routed Mike Takayama, 9-7; Corteza sneaked past Richard Pornelosa, 9-8; Orcullo conquered Jech Limen, 9-5; and Gomez trampled Michael Mendez 9-1.
