Like a band of brothers in time of war, a record of 17 Filipino cue artists gunned down their respective foes to march on to the final 64 of the 2011 WPA World 9-Ball Championships in Doha, Qatar Tuesday night.
Defending champion Francisco “Django” Bustamante and fellow Filipino stars Dennis Orcollo and Efren “Bata” Reyes spearheaded the charge in the survival stage by hurdling separate foes Monday night at the Al Sadd Sports Club.
Bustamante subdued Kuwait’s Alazmi Majed, 9-4, in Group D while Orcollo and Reyes dumped Venezuela’s Jalal Yousef and Russia’s Konstantin Stepanov by similar 9-3 scores in Group A.
Other Filipinos who advanced with two wins each were fast rising cue artist Carlo Biado along with Oliver Medenilla, Jeffrey de Luna, Allan Cuartero and fomer World number one Antonio Lining.
Biado routed Korea’s Le Gun Kae, 9-2, in Group D; Medenilla repulsed Vietnam’s Nguyen Phuong Thao, 9-6, in Group G; De Luna bested Indonesia’s Riyan Setiawan, 9-4, in Group H; Cuartero defeated Sweden’s Marcus Chamat, 9-5, in Group L; and Lining tripped Japan’s Tohru Kouribayashi of Japan, 9-4, in Group P.
Meanwhile, those pushed to the brink in losers bracket likewise survived their assignments including 2007 runner-up Roberto Gomez and double-world champion Ronnie Alcano.
Alcano cracked in a hill-hill battle against Sweden’s Radoslow Babica before crushing Vietnam’s Phuc Long Nguyen, 9-1, in Group M even as Gomez trumped Uruguay’s Christian Tuvi, 9-4, in Group E.
Lee Van Corteza Villamor Caneda, Tanio Vicenancio, Joven Alba, Israel Rota and Raymund Faron also advanced from the losers bracket to the knockout round of the $250,000 tournament with an assured $36,000 for the grand victor.
Corteza overhauled a 1-4 deficit to a 9-6 victory over Sweden’s Marcus Chamat in Group L; Israel Rota escaped Kuwait’s Bader Al Awadi, 9-8, in Group K; Villamor Caneda edged Korea’s Jae Gun Lee, 9-7, in Group D; while Tanio Vicenancio and Joven Alba dismanttled Hong Kong’s Chen Man Lee and Sundeep Gulat with similar 9-4 victories in Groups I and J, respectively.
The only casualty from the Filipino side was Francisco Olita Felicilda, who bowed out with an 8-9 heartbreak to Iran’s Soheil Vahedi, also in Group I.
But none of the Filipinos are out of the wood just yet as the daunting knockout phase begins today, June 29 with only half advances to the next round.