Last Weekend, the 2004 season of the San Miguel Asian 9-ball tour had its fifth and final stop right here in Manila. I took the opportunity to watch the games live since the venue (Octagon Hall in Robinson’s Galleria) was just a 30-minute bus ride away from where I live (never mind the 15-minute walk from the house to the bus stop).
The preliminary rounds were held last Saturday, but due to a prior commitment, I was not able to attend. No problem, I just caught up with the action Sunday afternoon starting with the semi-final round, where incidentally, both matches featured a Filipino going up against a foreigner.
In the first bracket, local hero Lee Van Corteza (who eliminated tournament favorite Efren ‘bata’ Reyes via a stunning 9-8 upset win in the Saturday quarterfinals) was going up against Korean Jeong Young Hwa. The Korean won the first four racks, but Corteza fought back and took the next ten racks to go up to a huge 10-4 lead. And even though the Korean broke and ran out the following rack to earn back some measure of respect, Corteza returned the favor in the 16th rack to win the match 11-5 and move on to the finals.
In the other bracket, it was up to Francisco ‘Django’ Bustamante to make it an all-pinoy party at the finals, but it was no walk in the park as he found himself face to face with Taiwanese teen sensation Wu Chia Ching. Like Jeong before him, the 15-year old Wu kept the audience in pins and needles as he ground out with Bustamante in the early goings of the match. However, like Corteza, Bustamante used a huge mid-game run to send the teenager home via a similar 11-5 score, much to the delight of the highly partisan homecrowd.
Being inside the venue, I really felt the tension and excitement among the audience as the semi-final matches were taking place. They wanted to have that all-Filipino match-up in the finals so much. And now that we got what we wanted, the tension subsided a bit, since no matter what happens in the finals, the audience was assured that a homegrown talent would be the one to bring home the bacon. We now prepared ourselves for a treat as we expected Bustamante and Corteza to give the fans a good show in the finals.
Corteza was the first to strike as he opened up a 4-1 lead to start the Championship match. Bustamante however quickly found his bearings to recover and knot the showdown at 5 racks apiece after the 10th rack. Bustamante was still riding high on his momentum and took five more out of the next six racks to get on the brink of the title, 10-6. And just when everybody was about to concede the title to Bustamante, Corteza out of nowhere, suddenly sprang back to life as he swept the next four racks to send the match back to square one at 10-all.
Tournament rules state that the championship match is to be a race-to-11 racks affair. However, in the event that the protagonists find themselves in a 10-10 deadlock, the match will then turn into a race to 12. Or a race to 13 racks if they find themselves knotted again at 11-all.
In the 21st rack, Bustamante had his best break of the evening when he pocketed five balls in his breakshot. He disposed of the remaining balls just as quickly to go up 11-10. Corteza then effectively snookered the three-ball for Bustamante in the next rack, and then ran out the remaining balls to tie the score again at 11-all.
At this point, I looked around, and at my back, just a few seats away from me, I spotted the two losing semifinalists, Jeong of Korea and Wu of Taiwan, talking to each other. Jeong held a digital camera in his hand and was showing Wu some of the pictures that he took. An organizer then approached them and informed that the match will end when one of the finalist gets rack no. 13.
In rack no. 23, Bustamante uncharacteristically failed to pocket a single ball in his break shot. Corteza used this opportunity and ran out the rack with a series of difficult shots to go up 12-11. Then, in the following rack, Corteza had a nice break as he pocketed a ball and had a nice open look at the one-ball. He then wasted no time in running out the rack to win the championship 13-11.
Bustamante thus finds himself still searching for that elusive first title in this tour, where bad luck has hounded him consistently.
With the win, the 25-year old Corteza, gives Filipino fans hope that there is a future for Philippine billiards beyond 50-year old Reyes and 40-year old Bustamante. It was after all, in Corteza’s hands where the two world legends found defeat in this tournament.
Flashback: After Jeong finished his Vietnamese opponent in the quarterfinals, he was asked regarding his semi-final encounter against the winner of the Corteza-Reyes quarterfinal duel. Quite frankly, Jeong replied that he preferred to face Corteza rather than Reyes. This remark of course was understandable. Especially since it was no more than three weeks ago when Jeong was defeated by Reyes, 12-10 in the championship match of the Taipei leg of this tour. This turned out to be a classic case of be-careful-what-you-wish-for-because-you-might-just-get-it however, as he got more than he bargained for when he faced an in-form Corteza in the semis.
Let this tournament be Corteza’s way of serving notice that he should not be taken lightly again, ever.
No comments:
Post a Comment