Philippine Sports News and Updates

MANILA – Efren “Bata” Reyes and Francisco “Django” Bustamante of Philippines B bagged their second PartyCasino.net World Cup of Pool title after edging out Germany in an exciting final match on Sunday.

Reyes and Bustamante, the 2006 World Cup of Pool champions, posted an 11-9 win in their race-to-11 match against Germans Ralf Souquet and Thorsten Hohmann.

The pair of “Bata” and “Django” is the first tandem to win the World Cup of Pool twice since it began in 2006.

En route to the final, Reyes and Bustamante won the race-to-9 semifinal against Chinese Li Hewen and Fu Jianbo, 9-8.

“We didn't think we would get into the final but when we beat China, Efren said ‘we will win this tournament,’” Bustamante said in a MatchroomSport.com report.

The Germans, meantime, defeated Ronnie Alcano and Dennis Orcollo of Philippines A in the other semifinal, 9-6.

Tough win

“We are very happy because we thought we were lucky,” remarked Bustamante.

According to MatchroomSport.com, the Filipino pool legends led the Germans, 3-1 and 5-1 in the final held at the SM North EDSA in Quezon City.

But the cue artists from Germany bounced back, putting them ahead of the Philippines, 6-5, 8-6 and 9-8.

“When they were leading we thought we were going to lose as the score was 9-7 and they were still playing easy run outs,” added Bustamante.

He also said that they are very proud to have won the World Cup of Pool twice, commenting that their victory was “very tough.”

Souquet, for his part, shared his thoughts on the match: “To be honest I still don't believe that it was a fantastic match as both teams made a lot of errors, but it was very dramatic for the spectators and there was a lot of tension for both teams.”

A total of 32 teams from 31 countries participated in the 2009 PartyCasino.net World Cup of Pool.

• ABS-CBN