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Sports

Bata strings the Pearl but Django falls

- Abac Cordero -
Crowd favorite Efren "Bata" Reyes and Mikka Immonen of Finland turned back their respective opponents last night and moved toward a possible final showdown in the LG Flatron II 9-Ball Challenge at the Casino Filipino Parañaque.

Reyes turned back reigning world champion Earl "The Pearl" Strickland of the US, 9-5, while Immonen went to the limit in beating Francisco "Django" Bustamante, 9-8, in the short three-day, four-man challenge offering a $15,000 top purse.

The event resumes at 1 p.m. today with the players, all former winners of the world crown in Cardiff, Wales except for Bustamante, switching opponents. Reyes meets Immonen and Strickland faces Bustamante in a similar race-to-9, alternate break battle.

Under the format, Reyes and Bustamante aren’t bound to face each other in the final.

In case of a 1-1 tie among the four players, the two Filipinos and the two foreigners will square off in two playoff matches for final slots.

Reyes, playing with a smile, raced to a 2-0 lead and allowed Strickland to grab the upperhand at 3-2 before making most of his shots, including a couple of magical ones, and hardly committing any mistakes en route to a commanding 8-4 lead.

Strickland, who defeated Bustamante in a classic duel for this year’s world title, made it 5-8 by sinking the yellow nine ball on his break. However, it proved to be his last shot of the match as the Filipino specialist sank three balls on his break — Nos. 1, 2 and 6 then cleared the table for the win.

For his part, Immonen sank balls No. 2, 3 and 7 on his final break and didn’t face any trouble at all in clearing the table and wrapping up the match played before a lot of empty chairs and distractions like cellular phones going off and people talking and moving around as if there was no match going on.

In the fifth rack, Bustamante was all ready to take a clear, easy shot on the brown seven when someone seated at the front row clicked his camera using a flash bulb. This disturbed the Filipino cue artist who paused for a while and shook his head then took the shot and missed, allowing his opponent to clear the rack and take a 4-1 lead, the biggest in the match.

"Baka talagang sablay din. Nasabay lang siguro doon
ang insidente," said Bustamante as he was signing autographs for his fans after the match that lasted just a little over an hour.

"Pero okay lang. May laban pa naman bukas at sa susunod na araw,"
said the pride of Tarlac who, against Strickland today, hoping for a victory that could line him up for a shot at the title and the winner’s purse.

Immonen, a smooth operator, took an 8-7 lead by sinking the yellow nine on his break then watched Bustamante even the match with a run-out on the 16th rack.

After making the final shot of the match, Immonen clenched his left fist, raised his cue stick and shook hands with Bustamante.

BALL CHALLENGE

BUSTAMANTE

CASINO FILIPINO PARA

IMMONEN

IMMONEN AND STRICKLAND

MATCH

REYES

REYES AND BUSTAMANTE

REYES AND MIKKA IMMONEN OF FINLAND

STRICKLAND

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