World No. 2 Dennis Orcollo displayed nerves of steel as he overcame Cheng Yu Hsuan, 11-10, Wednesday night to lead seven other Filipinos to the Round of 32 of the WPA World 9-Ball Championship at Al Arabi Sports Club in Doha, Qatar.
Keeping his composure after trailing early, Orcollo completed a stunning turnaround from 2-7 down to earn the right to face John Morra of Canada, who ousted Nick Malaj of Albania, 11-9.
World No. 3 Lee Van Corteza also advanced along with Carlo Biado, Marlon Manalo, Antonio Gabica, Jeff de Luna, Israel Rota and Ramil Gallego.
But Filipino legend Efren “Bata” Reyes was not as fortunate as he was shown the door by the Netherlands’ Nick van den Berg, 5-11. Also getting the boot was Alex Pagulayan, the Canada-based Filipino and 2004 world champion, who lost to 2001 winner Mika Immonen of Finland.
Biado created a ripple in the $250,000 tournament when he rolled past German legend Ralf Souquet, 11-5, and set up a showdown with Shane Van Boening of the United States.
Corteza trounced Manuel Gama of Portugal, 11-7, to forge an interesting Round of 32 clash against defending champion and World No. 1 Daryl Peach of Great Britain.
Playing his first tournament in close to three years, Manalo also advanced after an 11-5 dumping of Omar Al Shaheen of Kuwait, 11-5, to arrange a showdown with Fabio Petroni of Italy, an 11-6 winner over Dmitri Jungo of Switzerland.
Israel Rota nipped countryman Mark Antony, 11-8. Standing in his way in the next round is Lo Li Wen of Chinese Taipei, who bundled out Filipino Raymond Faraon, 11-4.
De Luna also toppled another strong contender in Niels Feijen of the Netherlands, 11-9, while Gabica subdued Nguyen Anh Tuan of Vietnam, 11-8. Gallego pummeled Enrique Rojas of Chile, 11-8. Cedelf P. Tupas