Reyes, Pagulayan whip rivals in 9-ball opener

Hall-of-Famer Efren "Bata" Reyes and reigning world 9-ball champion Alex Pagulayan dominated their rivals to lead the opening day winners in On Cue 3: Continental Conquest yesterday at the Galleria Trade Hall at Robinson’s Galleria.

Reyes, the 1999 world pool champion, claimed the last five racks to turn what had been a close contest into a rout as he toppled Marcus Chamat of Sweden, 9-4, while Pagulayan reasserted his mastery over world pool runner-up Chang Pei-Wei of Chinese Taipei, 9-1.

Also winning their matches were Chao Fong-Pang of Chinese Taipei, who upset German ace Ralf Souquet, 9-6, and Yang Chin-Shun who thwarted Kunihiko Takahashi of Japan, 9-4.

Present during the opening ceremonies were top personalities led by Quezon City Mayor Feliciano "Sonny" Belmonte who did the ceremonial lag, Senator Alfredo Lim and Poch Puyat of Puyat Sports.

Reyes actually started slow but seized control when Chamat fell prey to a series of lapses.

Chamat, currently ranked seventh in the World Pool Association (WPA), drew cheers from the crowd following his ace on his break in the second rack and later scored on Reyes’ break to go up, 2-1.

Reyes wrested the lead at 4-3, but Chamat took the next to draw level although the Swede bet uncharacteristically lost his poise and turned erratic, enabling the Filipino legend to sweep the next five racks for the win.

Pagulayan, on the other hand, raced to an 8-0 lead in game where he was expected to face a tough fight from his Taiwanese rival whom he beat in the world 9-ball final in Taiwan recently.

But Chang came into the game groping for form and even missed the No.9 that could have given him his first rack win on the eighth.

Chang, ranked No. 11 in the WPA, only scored on the ninth on a steal after Pagulayan missed the No. 2 ball but the latter took the next and the match.

ABS-CBN has put up a total cash purse of $50,000 with the champion getting $20,000.

The 16 players will battle each other anew in the second round elimination today with the top four advancing to the crossover race-to-11 semifinals. The race-to-13 finals is set tomorrow.

Tickets are available at P350 for VIP seats and P200 for bleacher seats today, and P500 for VIP and P300 for bleacher seats in the semifinals and finals tomorrow.