Bata, Django seek Final 4 versus bouncing Czechs

An unranked Czech Republic team hot on a giant-killing run stands on the Philippines’ way to the Final Four of the PartyPoker.com World Cup of Pool.

Efren "Bata" Reyes and Francisco "Django" Bustamante take on the Czech pair of Roman Hybler and Michal Gavenciak in the quarterfinal round of the rich event at the Newport Centre Saturday (Sunday in the Philippines) in Newport, Wales.

The two sides slug it out for a crack at the finals against the winner of the explosive Taiwan-Germany tiff.

The other teams reaching the quarterfinals are the third-seeded USA, 10th ranked Italy and unranked squads Hong Kong and Vietnam.

The Vietnamese tandem of Thanh Nam Nguyen and Chi Dung Luong produced the biggest reversal in the tourney thus far with a 9-8 thriller of a win over the second-seeded Holland pair of Niels Feijen and Nick van den Berg.

But the Czechs have also created ripples with upset wins over No. 9 team Poland in the opening round and No. 8 Canada in the second round.

Hybler and Gavenciak lost an early three-rack lead and faced disaster by falling behind, 7-8, but dug deep to knock off the final two racks, salvaging a 9-8 win over Canada’s Luc Salvas and Tyler Edey.

Pool experts, however, say a Czech win over the top seed Philippines is highly improbable.

Hybler and Gavenciak are nobody compared to Reyes and Bustamante as far as credentials are concerned.

While Reyes and Bustamante have won championships practically all over the world, the best the two Czechs can boast is a ninth place finish in the 2004 World Pool.

Czech and Canada split the first two racks as nerves caused some misses, setting the tone for most of the match.

Salvas and Edey shared a stick as the former lost his cue case several days ago, and that perhaps took its toll on the Canadians.

But despite the sort of little handicap, the Canadians put up a good fight and were even the first to make the hill at 8-7 after trailing at 7-4.

The Czechs, however, forced a hill-hill affair then a fantastic break by Hybler set up a run-out that had the European squad setting up a quarterfinals showdown with the Philippines.