GENERAL SANTOS CITY—Top favorites Thorsten Hohmann and John Mora reached the quarterfinals of the MP Cup GenSan Tuna Festival International Open 10-Ball Billiards team tournament even as Manny Pacquiao and Ronnie Alcano likewise emerged victorious here yesterdayat the SM Mall.
Hohmann, the German champion who earlier this week won the singles event, and his Canadian partner Mora, blasted Alex Pagulayan and Gandy Valle, to stay in the hunt for the $40,000 top prize in this $100,000 event bankrolled by Pacquiao, also a Sarangani congressman, in celebration of the 16th General Santos Tuna Festival.
Local phenoms Chezka Centeno and Jeffrey Roda, both 14-year-olds, upended Dennis Orcullo and Carlo Biado, 9-7.
Centeno and Roda were challenging the Hohmann-Mora pair at press time.
Pacquiao was in deadly form in his partnership with the lanky Alcano, a long-time friend. They raced to a 4-0 lead and never looked back, finishing off the highly avored Lee Van Corteza-Judel Mazon pair, 9-5.
Also advancing were the indefatiguable tandem of legends Efren “Bata” Reyes and Francisco “Django” Bustamante, who beat Jimmy Shaik and Christopher Alalunay.
Max Eberle of the US and local bet Darwin Bernadaz likewise advanced alongside the Chinese Taipei teams of Ko Pin-yi and Ko Pin-chung, Hsu Kai-lun and Chang Yu-long, Fu Che-wei and Chang Yu, and Koreans Ga-young Kim and Ho-jun Kwon.