Philippine Sports News and Updates

The Guinness Asian 9-Ball Tour in Bali, Indonesia ended with the Philippine National champion and four-time Southeast Asian Games gold medalist Lee Vann Corteza failing in his bid to give the country even one win in the inaugural tour, losing to Chinese Taipei’s newest find, Chang Jung-Lin, 11-8.

The results were in stark contrast to last year’s San Miguel Asian 9-Ball Tour where the Filipinos, in a dominating performance that reinforced the country’s reputation, scored a historic sweep of all four legs anchored by Efren “Bata” Reyes, acknowledged as the greatest pool player of all-time. Django Bustamante also skipped the series.

Corteza, who lost to Chang in the inaugural leg in Jakarta last April 11-15, was eager to avenge that loss to the Chinese Taipei player, who proved the win was no fluke by winning the Malaysian leg, defeating unheralded Dharminder Lilly Singh of India. But after beating Chang easily in the preliminary round, 9-3, Corteza faced a different foe in the finals.

Chang quickly made it clear it wasn’t going to be a repeat of their first meeting earlier in the Grand Finals, when he raced to a 4-1 lead. The Filipino came charging back to tie the score at 7-7, highlighted by a table rout in the 12th rack and cleanups in the next two.

Not to be denied, Chang battled right back by breaking and running out in the 16th and capitalizing on Corteza’s scratch on the break in the 17th. Chang raced to the hill and with the pressure mounting, Corteza once again scratched on his break and conceded the title of grand champion to the comparatively unheralded Taiwanese, who has long been in the shadow of such greats as Fong Pang Chao, Yang Shing Chung and 2005 World Pool champion Wu Chia Ching.

Chang won the biggest prize on the Guinness Tour, a cool $36,000 while Corteza settled for $10,000. The other Filipino entry, last year’s World Pool champion in both 8-Ball and 9-Ball, Ronnie Alcano, won $2,400.

Chang said: “It’s more than just the monetary reward, it’s about being recognized as an international player that makes this victory mean so much to me.”

Source: Manila Standard Today