Pinoy pool stars off to hot start

Filipino cue masters Efren “Bata” Reyes and Dennis “Robocop” Orcollo posted back-to-back victories yesterday at the start of the 37th Annual US Open at the Holiday Inn Virginia Beach-Norfolk Convention Center in Virginia, USA.

Reyes crushed George McLanahan, 11-1 and Bobby Petroceli, 11-0, respectively to face Thorsten Hohmann of Germany in the next round.

Meanwhile, Orcollo took a bye in the first round then routed Rory Hendrickson, 11-6, in the next round to set up a third round encounter against Mark Gray of Great Britain.

Also scoring wins were Alex Pagulayan, Santos Sambajon, Israel Rota, Jose “Amang” Parica, Ronato Alcano, Francisco “Django” Bustamante and Carlo “The Black Tiger” Biado.

Pagulayan took a bye in the first round then blanked Danny Spell, 11-0. He will meet Sambajon in the next round, winner over Adam Spell, 11-0, and Joe Brush, 11-3.

Rota topped Randy Russel, 11-1, and Oliver Ortmann, 11-4, to face John Morra of Canada; Parica beat Brett Stottlemyer, 11-1 and Jeff Clare, 11-4 while Alcano crushed Mike Delawder, 11-9, and Jason Michas, 11-6. He will face the winner of the match between Ko Pin-yi of Chinese-Taipei and David Alcaide of Spain.

Bustamante nipped Bill Dugan, 11-2 and Jerome Rockwell, 11-1 to meet Mika Immonen of Finland while Biado took a bye in the first round then outclassed Chris Bartram, 11-6.

Meanwhile, Cebuano Warren Kiamco defeated Charles Hagan, 11-1, but lost to Tommy Kennedy, 7-11 in the second round while Ramon Mistica, got a bye in the opening round but lost to Nick van den berg of the Netherlands, 3-11.

Kiamco and Mistica, need to win their games in the loser’s side to progress.

The Filipino US Open 9-Ball Campaign is supported by Billiards Managers and Players Association of the Philippines (BMPAP), Puyat Sports, Bugsy Promotions, Negros Billiards Stable, Hermes Sports Bar and Malungai Life Oil.