16 Pinoy cue aces advance to Last 64 of World 9-ball

Reigning National Open champion Lee Vann “The Slayer” Corteza defeated Marcus Chamat of Sweden, 9-6, in Group L in their do-or-die match last Tuesday night, to lead 15 other Filipino cue aces to the Last 64 knockout round of the 2011 World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) World 9-Ball Championship at the Al Sadd Sports Club in Doha, Qatar.

Corteza, the top player of Negros Billiards Stable (NBS) will face countryman Oliver Medenilla in their round-of-64 match in the $250,000 week-long tournament.

Medenilla earned a slot in the knockout stage after beating Nguyen Phuong Thao of Vietnam, 9-6 in Group G where he finished with an unblemished record of two wins.

Aside from Corteza who made the finals of the World Ten Ball event, the other Filipinos who advanced to the Last 64 via the losers brackets were Cebuano Antonio “Ga-Ga” Gabica, Caneda Villamor, Roberto “Pinoy Superman” Gomez, Vicenancio Tanio, Joven Alba, Cebuano Israel Rota, Raymond Faraon and former WPA 9-ball and 8-ball champion Ronato Alcano.

Gabica beat Fu Jian Bo of China, 9-8 in Group B; Villamor nipped Lee Gun Kae of Korea, 9-7 in Group D; Gomez routed Christian Tuvi of Uruguay, 9-4 in Group E; Tanio toppled Lee Chen Man of Hongkong, 9-4 in Group I; Alba downed Sundeep Gulat of India, 9-4 in Group J; Rota edged Bader Al Awadi of Kuwait, 9-8 in Group K; Faron demolished Mohammad Al Hazmi of Saudia Arabia, 9-3 in Group M and Alcano smashed Nguyen Phuo Long of Vietnam, 9-1 also in Group M.

Not as lucky was Francisco Felicilda who suffered a heart-breaking 8-9 loss to Soheil Vahedi of Iran in Group I.

Earlier, defending champion Francisco “Django” Bustamante, Efren “Bata” Reyes, Dennis “Robocop” Orcollo, Carlo “Cool” Biado, Jeffrey “The Bull” de Luna, Allan Cuartero and Antonio “Nikoy” Lining advanced to the Last 64 after posting two wins each in their respectived groups.

LAST 64 PAIRINGS

The 16 Pinoys and their Last 64 opponents: Lee Vann Corteza vs. Oliver Medenilla, Vicenancio Tanio vs. Nick van den Berg (Netherlands), Carlo Biado vs. Takhti Zarekani (Iran),
Antonio Gabica vs. Mika Immonen (Finland), Allan Cuartero vs. Ahmad Taufiq Murni (Brunei), Joven Alba vs. Chang Jun-lin (Chinese-Taipei).

Ronato Alcano vs. Chris Orme (USA), Israel Rota vs. Chang Yu-lun (Chinese-Taipei), Antonio Lining vs. Oliver Ortmann (Germany), Dennis Orcollo vs Muhammad Zulfikri (India), Efren “Bata” Reyes vs. Carlos Cabello (Spain), Francisco “Django” Bustamante vs. Sascha-Andrej Tege (Germany), Jeffrey de Luna vs Fu Che wei (Chinese-Taipei), Roberto Gomez vs. Daryl Peach (Great Britain), Raymund Faraon vs. Stephan Cohen (France).