Reyes dethrones Orcollo, sets KO duel vs de Luna

MANILA, Philippines - Efren “Bata” Reyes sustained his surge from the losers’ bracket, dethroning title-holder Dennis Orcollo, 9-4, in the 10th Predator International 10-Ball Championship at SM North EDSA yesterday.

Reyes, humbled by fellow former world 9-ball champion Ronnie Alcano Thursday, salvaged a slot in the knockout stage on an 8-5 win over Canadian Jason Klatt and rolled to quarterfinals on his five-rack victory over Orcollo.

Jeff de Luna, Warren Kiamco, Antonio Lining and Carlo Biado also came back from the losers’ bracket and made the Last Eight with victories over Alex Pagulayan, Ramil Gallego, Finnish Mika Immonen and Alcano, respectively.

At press time, only American Rodney Morris was the lone foreign bet to hang on, beating Canadian John Morra, 9-8, in a hill-hill encounter.

Predator World 10-Ball Tour champion Lee Van Corteza kept his unbeaten run, disposing of Jundel Mazon, 9-5, on the TV table over at The Block.

De Luna and Pagulayan were the next featured pair on the TV table, and the former played calm and composed, outlasting the latter, 9-7 to get a shot at the semifinals against Reyes.

Kiamco topped Gallego, 9-6, to arrange a Final Eight showdown with Morris.

Lining advanced to the next round versus Cortez on a 9-3 rout of Immonen while Biado also landed a spot in the Round of 16 on a 9-8 upset of Alcano.

The 96 competing players figured in a double-elimination format in the first two days. Sixteen advanced to the knockout stage with eight coming from the winners’ side and eight from the losers’ bracket.

The top eight undefeated players were seeded 1-8 and are pitted versus players from the losers’ side ranked 16-9.

“Efren is still the man to beat,” said Orcollo, considering Reyes as the top favorite for the championship and $12,000 top purse.

Biado eased out Jake Limen, 8-3, and rode the momentum in pulling the rug from under Alcano.

Roberto Gomez edged Elvis Calasang, 9-7, to clinch the last quarterfinal slot.