Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Filipino cue masters top World Cup of Pool
EFREN "Bata" Reyes and Francisco "Django" Bustamante lived up to their billing as tournament top seeds when they crushed the American pair of Earl Strickland and Rodney Morris in the finals, 13-5, to emerge the first winners of the PartyPoker.com World Cup of Pool in Newport, South Wales.
With the crowd cheering them on and waving miniature Philippine flags at the Newport Centre, Reyes and Bustamante turned the heat early as they raced to an early lead, then finished their third seeded rivals with superb shot making down the stretch to win the title pulling away and claim the $60,000 championship purse.
The Filipino pair earlier turned back the challenge of fourth seed Germany in the semifinals, 9-7, before going up against the Americans, who stopped giant-killer Vietnam in the other semis also with the same score.
"This is a very important tournament and we are happy and very proud to win the first World Cup," said an elated Bustamante.
"In the beginning of the match there was a lot of pressure on us but when we went three games ahead, it all lifted," Bustamante added.
Around 800 spectators were on hand to witness the final match, and most of them were rooting for the Filipino cue masters.
That, and coupled with pool wizardry, Reyes and Bustamante fashioned out the huge victory with plenty to spare and collected another billiards diadem in their storied careers.
Bustamante credited Reyes, his long-time buddy, for coming up with yet another magical performance.
"Efren played lots of unbelievable shots -- some of them I've never seen in my life -- and that's why we won. When he plays perfect and I play well we knew we had a great chance and it's a great feeling to be World Cup of Pool champions," Bustamante said.
Reyes said: "It's funny that every time there is a new big tournament I win it but all week I thought if we could get to the final then we could win."
The Americans started strong in the tournament and were hoping to beat the Filipinos to get out on top.
But Stricland and Morris ran into a brick wall in Reyes and Bustamante and were stopped on their tracks. "That was pretty disappointing," Morris said. "After 4-4 it didn't go our way although the match was closer than the score suggested. But when it went to 7-4, we were both pretty deflated and felt it slipping away."
Reyes and Bustamante jumped to a 3-0 lead, but allowed the Americans to tie the count at 4-4.
The Filipinos then took command, winning the next three racks and never looked back as the Americans were relegated to their seats the rest of the way. (CRAM)
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (August 29, 2006 issue)
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