INQUIRER Sports

Filipinos Efren ?Bata? Reyes and Francisco ?Django? Bustamante captured their second PartyCasino.net World Cup of Pool title after defeating Germany in an epic final Sunday night at the SM North EDSA in Quezon City.

The 2006 World Cup of Pool champions, rallied from a, 7-9 deficit to beat the stunned Ralf Souquet and Thorsten Hohmann, 11-9 and pocket the $60,000 first prize in the 32-team field from 31 countries.

The tandem of ?Bata? and ?Django? is the first pair to win the World Cup of Pool twice since it started in 2006.

Reyes and Bustamante won their race-to-9 semifinal against Chinese Li Hewen and Fu Jianbo, 9-8 to set up a meeting with the Germans. The Chinese won the 2007 World Cup of Pool and advanced to this year?s semis after routing defending champion United States of Shane Van Boening and Rodney Morris, 9-5, in the quarterfinals on Saturday.

?Malaking tulong ?yung suporta ng mga kababayan natin kaya muling naibalik sa bansa ang kampeonato,? said Reyes, the first Filipino to win the World 9-ball Championship in 1999 at Cardiff, Wales.

The Germans prevented a possible all-Filipino finals when they subdued Philippines A of Dennis ?Robocop? Orcollo and Ronato ?Volcano? Alcano, 9-6, in the other semifinal.

The Philippines? dynamic duo led the Germans, 3-1 and 5-1 before the latter bounced back to take a 9-7 advantage.

?Muntik pa kaming matalo buti na lamang naging matibay kami sa bandang huli bagama?t 9-7 na sila sa race-to-11,? added Bustamante.

?We should have won easily, 11-6, but it was just the way the match went but that?s the way it is. There is nothing you can do about it,? said a dejected Souquet, the reigning World 8-ball champion and former World 9-ball title-holder.

?We had enough chances, and I?m very very disappointed we didn?t win. To be honest I still don?t believe that it was a fantastic match as both teams made a lot of errors, but it was very dramatic for the spectators and there was a lot of tension for both teams,? he added.