Bata gains final on Mika’s miscue

Efren "Bata" Reyes gave his fans a big reason to cheer yesterday as he pounced on an early miscue by Finland’s Mika Immonen and pulled off a 9-6 victory for the first final slot in the LG Flatron 9-Ball Challenge at the Casino Filipino Parañaque.

The 48-year-old Reyes lost the lag to his boyish-looking opponent but got a big reprieve early on when Immonen scratched the cue ball while sinking the Nos. 1, 2 and 5 right on his opening break. The miscue set the tone for the match which the Filipino cue artist controlled all throughout.

In a battle between two former world 9-ball champions, Reyes took a 5-3 lead by converting the yellow nine on his break and went up at 8-6 with another powerful break and a run-out of the 14th rack. After Immonen failed on his eighth and last break, Reyes wasted no time to finish him off with an easy 1 and 9 combination on the right corner pocket.

"It was very unfortunate for me to suffer that scratch on the first rack. In tennis, it would be like losing your serve right on the first game. That really set the tone for the match," said Immonen, the flamboyant 2001 world champion, in a short interview while Reyes was busy entertaining his fans nearby shortly after the one-hour battle.

"Mabigat talaga para sa kanya ang scratch na ‘yun," said Reyes inside his dressing room. "At siyempre, nakabuti sa akin dahil nasa final na ako. Wala nang masyadong pressure."

It was the second win in as many days for Reyes in the three-day, four-man challenge following his 9-5 win over reigning world champion Earl "The Pearl" Strickland of the US last Thursday. The winner in this event takes a whopping $15,000, runner-up $10,000, third placer $7,500 and fourth placer $5,000.

The race-to-11 final is set tonight after a race-to-9 battle for third and an interesting race-to-5 exhibition match between basketball superstar Vergel Meneses and reigning International Boxing Federation super bantamweight king Manny Pacquiao in the afternoon.

Later in the evening, Francisco ‘Django’ Bustamante defeated Earl ‘The Pearl" Strickland of the United States, 9-5, in a battle between two players with a history of animosity between them.

Under the special format, Bustamante’s victory gave Immonen a free ride to the finals against Reyes and relegating the Tarlac native to a battle for third against Strickland. After two days, Reyes wound up with two wins, Immonen and Bustamante had identical 1-1 mark and Strickland 0-2 record.