Steady Efren Reyes, 6 other PH pool bets gain last 64

POOL maestro Efren “Bata” Reyes dumped Kuwait’s Bader Al Awadi, 9-2, Monday and led six other Filipinos into the round of 64 of the 2012 World 9-Ball Championship at the Al Sadd Sports Club in Doha, Qatar.

Reyes, still steady and deadly at 57, advanced to the tough knockout stage along with compatriots Francisco “Django” Bustamante, Ronnie Alcano, Lee Vann Corteza, Carlo Biado, Roberto Gomez and Antonio Gabica.

Bustamante, already enshrined into the billiards Hall of Fame like Reyes, bested Kuwait’s Abdullah Al Yousef, 9-4, while two-time world champion and last year’s runner-up Alcano survived American Hunter Lombardo, 9-8.

World No. 8 Corteza trounced countryman Marlon Caneda, 9-5, while the No. 12 Biado routed Czechoslovakia’s Roman Hybler, 9-3.

Gomez cruised to a 9-1 victory over Qatar’s Mohammad Saeed even as Gabica squeaked past Estonia’s Denis Grabe, 9-7.

Apart from Caneda, four other Filipinos, including the fancied former world No. 1 Dennis Orcollo, dropped to the losers’ bracket.

Groping for form, Orcollo yielded to Hong Kong’s Andrew Kong, 9-5, in Day 3 of the $300,000 tournament that drew 128 of the world’s finest players.

Also in a must-win situation are Jundel Mazon, who bowed to France’s Vincent Faquet, 5-9; Joyme Vicente, who lost to Canada’s John Morra, 9-8; and Ramil Gallego, who yielded to Malta’s Tony Drago, 9-6.

Others who advanced included 2003 World 9-ball titlist Thorsten Hohmann, 2007 champion Chang Jun-lin, Germany’s Ralf Souquet, the Netherland’s Nick Van den Berg, England’s Karl Boyes and Taiwan’s Fu Che-wei.

They were joined by Scotland’s Jason Shaw, the former snooker 8-ball world titlist, who thwarted China’s Fu Jianbo, 9-5, and Russian Konstantin Stepanov, who beat reigning titlist Yukio Akagariyama of Japan, 9-7. Roy Luarca