Bata-Django rips Kuwaitis; Germans up

MANILA—Two-time champions Efren “Bata” Reyes and Francisco “Django” Bustamante survived the rash of reversals that marked opening-day, whipping Kuwait’s Khaled Al Mutaira and Omar Al Shaheen, 8-4, Tuesday night to reach the second round of the Partypoker.Net World Cup of Pool.

Two days after suffering stunning first-round exits in the World Pool Masters, Reyes and Bustamente left little to chance, pulling away from 2-2 to bundle out the unheralded Kuwaitis, who were playing in the tournament for the first time.

Though far from their ruthless best, Reyes and Bustamante put up a decent stand against their inexperienced rivals to advance against India’s Raj Hundal and Amar Kang, who nipped Finland’s Mika Immonen and Petri Makkonen, 8-7.

Bustamante atoned for his miss on the orange-5 in the 10th rack by draining a difficult cut on the yellow-1 in the 12th frame that all but wrapped up the win for the Filipinos.

The other Filipino pair of Dennis Orcollo and Ronnie Alcano were scheduled to play last night against Austria’s Jasmine Ouschan and Mario He with the winner facing either Canada or Malta in the round of 16.

Perennial favorite Germany, represented by new World Pool Masters titlist Ralf Souquet and Philippine Open champion Thorsten Hohmann, posted the most convincing win of the tournament with an 8-0 whitewash of newcomers Australia Wednesday.

On a day when another big upset rocked the tournament, Germany’s big win put a semblance of normalcy in the $250,000 tournament.

Newcomer Estonia, represented by Dennis Grabe and Erki Erm, sent the third seeded English pair of former world champion Darren Appleton and Chris Melling packing with an 8-6 victory.

“In a race-to-eight, everyone has a chance,” said Grabe, whose partnership with Erm also needed to survive the qualifying stage in Austria. “We didn’t expect to win and it was a surprise we were hoping for.”

The Germans next face Malaysia’s Patrick Ooi and Ibrahim Bin Amir, who nipped the French pair of Stephan Cohen and Vincent Faquet, 8-7, in another first round match Souquet, still brandishing the form that netted him his sixth World Pool Masters crown last Monday, and Hohmann had three straight break and runouts for a 6-0 lead.

“If I could pick any player in the world to be with then it would be Ralf,” said Hohmann.

“I’m coming off a big win last week and Ralf won the Masters so our confidence is very high.”

“It’s a really short format and one mistake could cost you three or four games,” said Souquet.