Efren “Bata” Reyes and Francisco “Django” Bustamante breezed past their opening round foes from Hong Kong as expected on Tuesday night, 8-3, and advanced against Canada today in the World Cup of Pool at Robinsons Manila.
Playing as the Philippine-B team, Reyes-Bustamante raced to a 5-1 lead and was never threatened as the charismatic tandem launched its quest for a historic third championship in the $250,000 off on the right foot.
But things could be a lot tougher against Canada, which is represented by Filipino Alex Pagulayan and John Morra.
Pagulayan, who has represented the Philippines several times, and Morra scored an 8-7 victory over Sweden also on Tuesday.
“We played well but we need to improve on our breaks,” the 58-year-old Reyes told scribes in Filipino late Tuesday. “We will have a better chance of defeating Canada if we can break better.”
Reyes-Bustamante was the inaugural champion of this event in 2006 and then won again three years later. The last time a Philippine team came close to winning was in 2010 with Dennis Orcollo and Roberto Gomez.
The Philippine-A team of Orcollo and Lee Vann Corteza was set to debut late last night against Dimitri Jungo and Ronni Regli of Switzerland.
Fourth-ranked China and 13th-seeded Spain advanced to a second round duel after ousting Singapore and Hungary, respectively.
The Chinese, represented by Liu Haitao and Lee Hewen, ripped the Singaporeans, 8-4, while the veteran David Alcaide and Francisco Diaz Pizarro scored an 8-3 win for Spain over Hungarians Miko Balazs and Gabor Solymosi.
England, the third seed featuring Chris Melling and Darren Appleton, dropped just two racks in taking care of Belgium’s Serge Das and Cliff Castelmain.