Pagulayan, Reyes drop 9-ball openers

Defending champion Alex Pagulayan and former winner Efren "Bata" Reyes suffered stinging setbacks right in the opening round of the 2005 Kaohsiung World Pool Championship, bowing to Rico Diks of the Netherlands, 4-5, and the Kang Chin Ching of Taiwan, 3-5, respectively, before a stunned crowd at the Kaohsiung Business Exhibition Center in Kaohsiung, Taiwan yesterday.

Diks fought back from a 1-4 deficit as he pounced on Pagulayan’s shaky game to steal the victory in the nine-day event, which gathers the best and the brightest cue masters in the world.

The Filipino-born champion, who represented Canada last year, actually had a golden opportunity to close out the match in the sixth rack. However, Pagulayan’s attempt at the 2-ball on the corner pocket failed to drop, enabling Diks to snatch the rack and the match.

Reyes, the 1999 World Pool champion, also squandered a 3-1 lead to Kang, a quarterfinalist in last year’s competition. Needing only to pocket the 9-ball in the fifth rack, Reyes uncharacteristically flubbed his attempt as the object ball rattled off the left corner pocket. The Taiwanese easily pocketed the 9-ball then clinched the sixth rack.

The 50-year-old Filipino pool icon then committed another error when he muffed what had appeared to be an easy shot on the green-6. Kang cleaned up the rack and finished off Reyes in the eighth rack.

Another Filipino, Rodolfo Luat, also dropped his opening assignment in Group 2. Luat fell to 2005 San Miguel Asian 9-Ball Tour overall champion Yang Ching Shun, 1-5.

But Marlon Manalo came away with an inspiring 5-3 victory over Jeremy Jones of the United States while the likes of Francisco "Django" Bustamante, Ronnie Alcano, Gandy Valle, Dennis Orcullo, Warren Kiamco and Antonio Lining were still playing at presstime.

Despite their losses, Pagulayan and Reyes still have a chance to advance to the round of 64. They have to at least make it to the top four of their respective groups to move on to the knockout phase, which begins on Wednesday.

The 128 players competing have been divided into 16 Groups of 8 players during the first four days of competition. All competitors will play each other once within each group in a race-to-five, alternate break format. Two points will be awarded for every win in the group stage.

The first two rounds of the knockout phase will follow a race-to-10, winners’ break format. The round of 16, quarterfinals and semifinals will use the race-to-11, winners’ break format while the finals will be a race-to-17, winners’ break.