Bustamantes stay in hunt for crown
The Bustamantes sustained their searing runs in the 2007 World Pool Championship last night with Django sustaining his drive for a possible breakthrough triumph and Joven staying in the hunt for a Cinderella finish.
Django overpowered Alex Pagulayan, 11-2, in an all-Filipino battle while Joven overcame crucial miscues and downed Japanese pride Satoshi Kawabata, 11-9, to make the Final Eight.
Roberto Gomez, the third Filipino vying for a quarterfinal seat, was playing veteran Niels Feijen of the
Pagulayan, the 2004 champion, bowed out of contention for the title but lauded the Bustamante twinkill, raising hope for a Filipino victory in the nine-day event at the Big Dome.
“I think I have a big chance to win it. I have beaten Alex who’s my biggest worry in this tournament,” said Django.
“If his hand doesn’t get stiff, he’s got big winning chances,” said Pagulayan, confident Django can beat any of the remaining players in the field.
Django kept his fiery form, completely outclassing Pagulayan to set up a quarterfinals showdown with either Daryl Peach of
Joven squeezed out of a delicate position on the 20th rack in one superb shot setting him up for a cleanup and the escape win that gave him a crack at the semifinals against another Englishman Karl Boyes.
“Setting out for my first World Pool, I was just looking at a quarterfinals or a semis finish. But now that I’m here in the quarters and some of our big guns are out, I might as well dream and go for the biggest thing,” said Joven, a few units short of completing an electrical engineering course at the University of the East.
The 29-year-old started playing pool at 13 but didn’t have much exposure in major international competitions as he opted to work as a house pro in
Nonetheless, Joven has been showing great poise and confidence, claiming another upset win in Kawabata who’s a six-year WPC veteran and gold medalist in the 2006 Asian Games 8-Ball event.
That set him up for a quarterfinals showdown with Boyes, 11-4 winner over Russian Konstantin Stepanov.
“We haven’t played each other but I’ve seen him play. He’s a good player and could be a tough opponent,” said Boyes of Joven.
Joven was superb against 20th seed Dennis Orcollo in the Round of 64 and against 2005 champion Wu Chia-ching in the Final 32 but struggled in the Last 16 against Kawabata.
“I played bad. It so happened that the Japanese made crucial mistakes,” said Joven.
After taking the first rack, Joven fell behind by two racks at 1-3 and 3-5 before regaining the upperhand at 9-7 on a three-rack run.
Breaking for the match at 10-8, Joven sank three balls on a hard break but prolonged the contest with a miss on the blue No. 2 ball.
Kawabata had a chance to pull even at 10-all when he made his biggest error on a faulty safety, giving Joven an opening on the yellow No 1.
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