12 Pinoys eye Final 32 slots of World 9-ball tilt

Filipino cue masters led by Efren “Bata” Reyes and Marlon “Marvelous Captain” Manalo gear up for the tough knock-out stage or Final 64 of the World 9-Ball Championship after beating their respective rivals on Tuesday at the Al Arabi Sports Club in Doha, Qatar.

Reyes defeated Korea’s Jeong Young Hwa, 9-4, while the comebacking Manalo ripped Poland’s Mateusz Sniegocki, 9-4.

Next up for Reyes is Nick van den berg of the Netherlands while Manalo, who stayed away from billiards after being elected barangay chief of Brgy. Malamig in Mandaluyong, will next face Omar Al Shaheen of Kuwait.

A total of 12 Pinoys, including Reyes and Manalo advanced to the Round of 64 but former world 9-ball champion Francisco “Django” Bustamante failed to join his countrymen after losing to Thorsten Hohmann of Germany, 6-9 in their do-or-die match.

Other Final 64 matches pit Antonio Gabica vs. Nguyen Anh Tuan of Vietnam, Marlon Villamor vs. Karl Boyes of Great Britain, Raymund Faraon vs. Manuel Gama of Portugal, Lee Vann Corteza vs. Daryl Peach of Great Britain, Jeffrey de Luna vs. Ruslan Chinakhov of Russia, Dennis Orcollo vs. John Morra of Canada, Ramil Gallego vs. Enrique Rojas of Chile, Carlo Biado vs. Ralf Souquet of Germany and Israel Rota vs. compatriot Mark Antony.

The weeklong $250,000 event offers $36,000 to the champion and $18,000 to the runner-up.