Reyes, Orcollo lead US Open assault

Efren “Bata” Reyes and Dennis Orcollo led seven other Filipino cue masters with clean slates in the 37th Annual US Open being held at Norfolk Convention Center in Virginia, USA, Monday (Tuesday in Manila).

Reyes, a billiards Hall of Famer, dumped George McLanahan, 11-1, and Bobby Petroceli, 11-0, respectively, to arrange a third round showdown with German Thorsten Hohmann.

Orcollo, top player of Bugsy Promotions, took an opening round bye then bested Rory Hendrickson, 11-6, in the second round to forge a third-round encounter with Mark Gray of Britain.

Sharing the limelight are fellow Filipinos Alex Pagulayan, Santos Sambajon, Israel Rota, Jose “Amang” Parica, Ronato Alcano, Francisco “Django” Bustamante and Carlo Biado, who also disposed of their respective foes.

Pagulayan, the 2005 US Open 9-ball champion, took a bye in the first round then toppled Danny Spell, 11-0, to arrange a third round meeting with Sambajon, winner over Adam Spell, 11-0, and Joe Brush, 11-3.

Rota trounced Randy Russel, 11-1, and Oliver Ortmann, 11-4, to set up a meeting with John Morra of Canada. Parica, on the other hand, crushed Brett Stottlemyer, 11-1, and Jeff Clare, 11-4, to forge a duel with American Donny Mills.

Alcano, fresh off his victory in the Championship Cloth 5th Annual Pro Classic, subdued Mike Delawder, 11-9, and Jason Michas, 11-6.

Bustamante routed Bill Dugan, 11-2, and Jerome Rockwell, 11-1, to arrange a duel with Mika Immonen of Finland.

Biado also took a first-round bye and then bested Chris Bartram, 11-6, to forge a meeting with Tom D’ Alfonso of Italy.

Two other Filipinos—Warren Kiamco and Ramon Mistica—landed in the losers’ bracket.

Kiamco ripped Charles Hagan, 11-1, but lost to Tommy Kennedy, 7-11, while Mistica yielded to Nick van den berg of the Netherlands, 3-11.