World’s finest cue artists start clash for glory

Efren "Bata" Reyes, considered by many as the world’s greatest pool player ever, is seemingly up against the world as the 2006 World Pool Championship (WPC) gets underway at the Philippine International Convention Center today.

Reyes, who has won practically all major pool events in the world, is out to win a second WPC title but faces an international front with a burning desire to conquer him on his turf.

Former champion Mika Immonen best expressed the sentiment of all the Efren "Bata" Reyes wannabes. "I always dream to win the World Pool Championship. But my biggest dream is beat the best player in the world and win the World Pool Championship here," Immonen said.

The cream of the billiards world, including defending champion Wu Chia Ching from Chinese Taipei, are here, but much of the attention is on Reyes as curtains rise for the WPC with 128 players from 42 countries slugging it out for a total cash pot of $400,000 (P20 million).

"I feel so much pressure because I know everybody’s expecting me to win. I’ve never been this nervous before," said Reyes. "Kapag natalo, hindi lang nerbiyos, nakakahiya pa sa mga kababayan natin."

His compatriots feel for him.

"Our kababayans expect Efren to win while just everybody in the field is after Efren’s neck. So he must really be feeling so much pressure," said Alex Pagulayan, the 2004 champion.

"As far as I’m concerned, I’ve put behind me that I’m a former champion. I will just come out and play my best come what may," Pagulayan added.

Among the biggest names out to beat Reyes are other former champions Johnny Archer and Earl Strickland of the United States and Thorsten Hohmann of Germany.

Fighting for the national tri-color with Reyes and Pagulayan are 19 others, including 2002 WPC losing finalist Francisco "Django" Bustamante, 2006 IPT North American Open 8-Ball Championship runner-up Marlon Manalo, 2006 San Miguel Asian 9-Ball Bangkok leg winner Ramil Gallego, Kaoshiung leg winner Rodolfo Luat and 2005 Singapore champion Gandy Valle.

Completing the roster for the local bets and bolstering hopes of winning the championship at home is a savvy entourage counting Jose Parica, Dennis Orcollo, Ronato Alcano, Roland Garcia, Santos Sambajon and eight players who made it to the main draw via qualifiers.

The 128 players are divided into 32 groups of four players in the first four days of competition. All competitors will play each other once within each group in a race-to-eight, alternate-break format.

The top two players from each group will move to the last 64 knockout stage. The first two rounds of the knockout phase will follow a race-to-10 alternate-break format. The round of 16, quarterfinals and semifinals will be race-to-11 while the finals will be race-to-17.

Reyes is in Group 2 and he opens his campaign against American Tony Crosby on the fifth match on the main table today. He plays Radoslaw Babica of Poland on table 2 tomorrow and Indonesia’s Roy Apancho again on main table Monday.

Wu banners Group 1, Hohmann Group 3, Pagulayan Group 4, Manalo with American Mike Davis Group 5, Archer Group 8, Bustamante Group 10, Immonen Group 11 and Strickland Group 17.

Wu shed about 60 pounds in a healthy diet he observed to have a good chance at defending the title he won in Kaoshiung last year. The 16-year-old Taiwanese wunderkind opens his defense against Germany’s Sven Pauritsch in the first match on the main table at 12 noon today.

Aside from Reyes, other Filipinos seeing action on Day One are Pagulayan against Argentina’s Gustavo Espinosa, Manalo against Canada’s Nicolas Guimond, Leonardo Andam against Germany’s Ralf Souquet, Bustamante against Filipino qualifier Jharome Peña, Antonio Lining versus Spain’s David Alcaide, Roland Garcia versus Korea’s Jeong Young-hwa, Rudy Morta against Sweden’s Marcus Chamat, Luat against China’s Fu Jian-bo, Roberto Gomez versus Japan’s Masaaki Tanaka, Israel Rota versus Chinese Taipei’s Nien Rong-chih, Alcano against Vietnam’s Luong Chi Dung, Eduardo Villanueva versus Italia’s Fabio Petroni and Ramil Gallego against Thailand’s Tepwin Arunnath.

Day One session starts at 12 noon. ESPN is devoting over 60 hours of live and exclusive coverage of the world’s biggest and most prestigious pool competition and the biggest event hosted by the country since last year’s 23rd Southeast Asian Games.