INQUIRER Sports

FILIPINO billiards legends Efren ?Bata? Reyes and Francisco ?Django? Bustamante flashed their vintage form to crush England?s Darren Appleton and Imrad Majin, 9-1, Saturday and clinch a semifinal seat in the PartyCasino.Net World Cup of Pool at the SM City North Annex in Quezon City.

Looking every bit the formidable pair that ruled the inaugural tournament three years ago, Reyes and Bustamante, who are seeded fifth, took three of the first four racks and capitalized on every mistake the English pair committed in their finest performance so far.

Now assured of $16,000, the Filipinos, who struggled against Qatar and Italy in the first two rounds, forged a showdown against 2007 champions Li Hewen and Fu Jianbo of China.

The 9th-seeded Chinese loomed as the heavy favorite after dethroning 2008 winners Rodney Morris and Shane Van Boening with a near-flawless 9-5 victory.

Dennis Orcollo and Ronnie Alcano, who make up RP-A, were to clash with the Polish pair of Radoslav Babica and Mateusz Sniegocki in the last quarterfinal match last night with the winner battling the survivor of the Germany-Holland duel.

The semifinals are set at 1 p.m. this Sunday followed by the championship match at 6 p.m.

?It?s going to be a tough match against China,? Bustamante said in Filipino, noting that the Chinese have already beaten them once in the Scotch Doubles format.

Fu and Li halted Reyes and Bustamante?s bid for a repeat victory two years ago with a 9-7 trouncing in the quarterfinals in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Unlike in their 8-5 win over Italy in the second round, Reyes and Bustamante did not need a controversial call to advance as they pocketed balls with surgical precision and played near perfect safety shots.

Appleton, the reigning World 10-ball champion, couldn?t get his game going, committing errors in the fifth, sixth and eighth racks that led to run-outs by the Filipinos.

In another break for the Filipinos in the ninth rack, Bustamante?s shot on the yellow 1 rattled out of the top right pocket before rolling into the opposite side pocket.

The Filipinos went on to clean up the rack and move on the hill.

?We didn?t want to give them a chance,? Reyes said in Filipino.