THEY flew in from as far as Japan and Indonesia but on the fifth and final day of the 1st Mayor Albee Benitez MassKara Billiards Tournament, the last man standing to romp off with the P350,000 grand prize was Cavite’s Jundel Mazon.
The tournament started with 128 players, many of them giants in the world of billiards, including the legends and world champions Efren “Bata” Reyes and Francisco “Django” Bustamante among others.
The "masters" games brought in the crowd and though they dominated the early matches, on the fourth day, Reyes was crushed by newbie, 15-year old AJ Manas from Antipolo.
Reyes departure from the tournament though did not diminish the crowd, but rather, more came to see for themselves the boy wonder that eliminated the legend.
Manas played to the crowd as he also defeated national team player, Warren Kiamco in the best of 32 to advance to the quarterfinals. However, his journey was halted by former Guinness world champion, Jundel Mazon who defeated the youngster with a score of 8-7. Manas will forever have the bragging rights though of playing and crushing a legend.
The players got eliminated one by one and by late afternoon of Thursday, only eight players were left to vie for the quarterfinals but after another round Bustamante defeated Jerico Banares to face off with Bacolod’s pride, Johann Chua who eliminated 17-year old Jolo Aspuria in the semi-finals or the top 4 knockout game, while Jundel Mazon and Rodrigo Geronimo will play against each other after defeating Bonnie Penticase and Dean Mark Castronuevo respectively.
With just four players left, it was exciting to watch Chua play against his national team coach, using skills and technique that were probably passed to him by his mentor. Chua took on the lead immediately when Bustamante gave away the fourth set after he failed to land the 7th ball in giving the younger player a lead of 3-1.
But while Bustamante came back strong to bring home the fifth set, he never recovered from his misses after Chua played strong and calculated, romping off the succeeding sets easily and finishing off the race to 9 with a final score of 9-2.
In the other table, Mazon and Geronimo started off tight with a score of 1 each and in the eighth set, they were still tied at 4-4 but eventually, Mazon went on to win the race to face off with Chua in the finals.
As soon as the final games started, Mazon showed dominance by immediately taking in the first five sets. Chua regained his standing by taking the 6th set and the game became exciting as the Bacolod-born champ went off to win a few more sets. However, in the end, the 46-year old Mazon took home the bacon with the final score of 9-5 and with it, the grand prize of P350,000.
Chua gets P100,000. (PR)