Thursday, October 23, 2008 Davao's Corteza whips Chohan in US Open 9-Ball
LEE Vann Corteza of Davao City and former two-time world champion Ronnie Alcano of Laguna survived hill-to-hill victories to stay alive in the Winners Side 4 bracket of the 33rd Annual US Open 9-Ball Championship Wednesday at the Chesapeake Convention Center in Chesapeake, Virginia.
Corteza, back-to-back Southeast Asian (SEA) Games champion, edged Tony Chohan, 11-10, while Alcano nipped Mitch Ellerman, 11-10, in their third round matches.
Corteza, an 11-5 winner over Abdullah El Yousef in the second round, will try to keep his winning streak when he takes on Shannon Daulton in the fourth round. The latter sent Beau Runningen to the losers' bracket by pulling off a rousing 11-2 win.
Alcano's next assignment will be Tyler Edey who dispatched Harvey Shognosh, 11-4, in the $250,000 tournament that offers $40,000 to the champion.
US-based Jose "Amang" Parica also remained in contention after disposing of David Broxson, 11-7, but Rodolfo Luat lost to Nick Varner, 10-11, in Winners' Side 1 bracket.
Luat was relegated to the losers' bracket along with fellow Filipinos Ramil "Bebeng" Gallego and Warren Kiamco.
Gallego was subdued by Tony Robles, 5-11, in Winners Side 2 while Kiamco suffered a heartbreaking 9-11 defeat at the hands of Josh Lewis in Winners Side 4.
Francisco "Django" Bustamante, meanwhile, became the fourth Filipino cue master who remained unbeaten after three rounds. He leaned on his vast experience to get through an 11-10 win over Imrad Majid after beating Keith Brinton, 11-8. (MLSA)
