INQUIRER Sports

MANILA, Philippines—Dennis Orcollo and Francisco “Django” Bustamante may have gotten a two-day bye in the 2008 World Cup of Pool in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, beginning Tuesday but the Filipino bets have not, in any way, lost sight of their ultimate goal.

The second-seeded Filipinos, who are teaming up for the first time, want to maximize their idle time to the hilt, acclimatizing to the cold weather and scouting the tough field.

Orcollo, out to validate his world No. 1 ranking, and Bustamante, who knows the ins and outs of this tournament, plunge into action against the Danish pair of Martin Larsen and Kasper Kristoffersen on Thursday, when the rest of the field are already through with their opening-round matches.

“We’re kind of lucky to have that schedule,” said Bustamante, a three-time World Cup campaigner who won this tournament with Efren “Bata” Reyes in 2006.

“At least, we’ll have more time to practice, get accustomed to the weather and see how the other teams play.”

The tournament, which drew the sport’s top 32 nations, offers $250,000 with the champion pair pocketing $60,000.

Bustamante and Reyes saw their run last year halted in the quarterfinals by eventual champions Fu Jianbo and Li Hewen of China.

And with the knockout format now in place, Bustamante believes it will take more than luck for his partnership with Orcollo to match the RP victory in 2006.

If the Filipinos hurdle the Danish pair, they will meet either Malaysia’s Ibrahim Bin Amir and Lee Poh Soon or Russia’s Konstantin Stepanov and Ruslan Chinahov for a quarterfinal berth.

Orcollo has been enjoying a brilliant run lately with victories in the SMB-Quezon City 9-Ball Championship, the All-Japan Open, the 2008 Qatar 9-Ball Open and the China leg of the 2008 Guinness Tour.

“I hope I could continue my strong performance and help Django win this tournament for our country,” said the 29-year-old stalwart of Bugsy Promotions.

Top seed China will open its title defense against No. 32 India on Tuesday.

Wednesday matches: No. 5 England (Darryl Peach-Mark Gray) vs Malta; No. 3 Holland A (Niels Feijen-Nick van den Berg) vs Belgium; No. 8 Finland (Mika Immonen-Markus Juva) vs. South Korea; Italy vs Peru; Switzerland vs Hong Kong. Cedelf P. Tupas