Reyes gets break, enters 9-ball semis

BACOLOD CITY – Efren “Bata” Reyes pocketed eight consecutive racks to overcome another so-so start to thwart fellow former world champion Kunihiko Takahashi of Japan, 11-4, and barge into the Final Four of the Senate President Manny Villar Cup Bacolod leg at the Garden Royal Function Hall of the Goldenfields Commercial Complex here.

Playing before a huge Bacolod crowd obviously rooting for him, the 54-year-old pool maestro had an uncharacteristically erratic start, missing three relatively easy shots, allowing Takahashi, the 1998 world 9-ball champion, to take the early upper hand at 4-3.

But just as he is known, the Magician turned to his bagful of tricks and used one of them – a long tough-angled bank shot of the red-3 in the eighth frame – to tie the match and ignite a stretch of break and run-outs en route to his third straight victory in this fifth stop of the prestigious island-hopping series presented by Villards: Tulong sa Pagsulong ng Philippine sports.

That put Reyes to within two wins of the $15,000 top prize at stake in this four-day competition organized by the Billiards Managers and Players Association of the Philippines in cooperation with the city government of Bacolod led by Mayor Evelio Leonardia and the Negros Billiards Stable (NBS) of businessman Jonathan Sy and sponsored by Camella Communities.

The next stumbling block for Reyes is hometown idol Ramil Gallego, who dismissed Joven Bustamante, 11-7, in their quarterfinals encounter.