Reyes loses magic anew; Django, 3 others advance

SINGAPORE — Hsia Hui Kai continued to be Efren "Bata" Reyes’ big nightmare as the young Taiwanese player made it two in a row over the world-renowned Filipino pool master in a shocker at center table at the start of the San Miguel Asian 9-Ball Tour at the Pool Haven here yesterday.

Hsia, 28, repeated his Busan Asiad conquest of Reyes last year with a 9-5 win in their rematch which everybody here thought could become payback time for "The Magician."

Instead, it turned out to be an early bye-bye time for Reyes as the lead player of the Puyat Sports stable of pool wizards suffered his first ever defeat in the first round of any single knockout tourney he has played in his checkered career.

Nonetheless, the Philippine flag remained flying high in this two-day Asian Tour kick-off leg, presented by ESPN STAR Sports, with four Filipinos advancing to the quarterfinal round.

Top seed Francisco "Django" Bustamante rolled over India’s Dharmainder Lilly, 9-2, and Singapore’s Tan Tiong Boopn, 9-1, No. 4 Warren Kiamco surged past Hong Kong’s Au Chi-wai, 9-3, and compatriot Dennis Orcullo, 9-1, No. 7 Antonio "Nickoy" Lining ousted Vietnam’s Luong Chi-Dung, 9-8, and Thailand’s Surathep Phoochalam, 9-6, while Lee Van Corteza disposed of Korea’s Jeong Young-hwa, 9-6, and India’s Mukesh Rihani, 9-3.

Lining, now assured of $3,000 prize money like Bustamante, Kiamco and Corteza, has a chance to avenge Reyes’ bitter defeat as he faces Hsia in the Final Eight.

"To me, this particular win meant a lot. I would be happier beating Efren Reyes than winning the championship," said Hsia, remaining probably the only player in the world with a perfect winning record versus Reyes.

Using a cue stick with a new tip proved to be a big blunder for Reyes as the Angeles City native struggled with it, committing several costly miscues that enabled Hsia to get his game going all the way to moving to the second round of the tourney.

Reyes said he couldn’t get used to the new tip as he has been busy filming a movie title "Tumbukin Mo, Susuntukin Ko" with action king Fernando Poe Jr. since returning from the United States last February.

"Malambot pa yong sapatilya dahil bagong palit, hindi ko naman nagamit dahil lagi kami sa shooting. Hindi rin ako nakapag-practice dito pagdating namin kagabi (Friday night)," said Reyes, curiously coming off a championship in the International Masters in Virginia only last January.

"Nagpalit ako ng tip after the Virginia tournament," added Reyes, also the winner of the Asian 8-Ball tourney held here last year.

Reyes had miscues on the seventh, ninth and 10th racks, helping Hsia make a five-rack run to surge ahead at 7-4 from 2-4 down.

The Filipino broke his long spell by winning the 12th rack right on the ball-break, but the Taiwanese made it 8-5 via the same trick.

With Reyes unable to pocket any ball while doing the break in the 14th rack, Hsia cleaned it up to ice the win and set up a second-round duel with Japanese Haruyoshi Hinokiyama whom he dealt a 9-1 shellacking.

All the action in this event will be aired on STAR Sports at 9 p.m. April 1-3 and April 8-10.