17 Pinoys enter World 9-Ball c'ships Round of 64

The Philippines made its strong presence felt in the 2011 World 9-Ball Championships as 17 cue artists advanced to the Round of 64 at the Al Saab Sports Club in Doha, Qatar. The Filipino charge is led by former 9-Ball world champion Ronnie Alcano, Antonio Gabica, and Lee Van Corteza after they hurdled their respective opponents in late matches Tuesday night in the losers' bracket to advance to the knockout stage. Also advancing to the next phase are former world 9-Ball runner-up Roberto Gomez, Caneda Villamor, Venancio Tanio, Joven Alba, Israel Rota and Raymond Faron to join defending champion Francisco "Django" Bustamante, Efren "Bata" Reyes, Dennis Orcollo, Carlo Biado, Oliver Mendenilla, Jeff De Luna, Allan Cuartero and Antonio Lining. Alcano blew past Nguyen Phuo Long of Vietnam, 9-1, to recover from his 9-8 loss to Radoslav Babica in his previous match while Gabica, the Qatar national team coach, escaped with a 908 triumph over Fu Jan Bo of China. Corteza became the 17th Pinoy in the Round-of-64 as he finished the night with a 9-6 win over Sweden's Marcus Chamat. Other results saw Villamor defeating Lee Gun Jae of Korea, 9-7, Tanio overcoming Lee Chen Man of Hon Kong, 9-4 and Gomez winning over Christian Tuvi of Uruguay, 9-4. Alba beat Sundeep Gulat of India, 9-4, while Israel Rota survived Bader Al Awadi of Kuwait. Faron outclassed Mohammed Al Hazmi of Saudi Arabia, 9-3. Round-of-64 begins Wednesday The Round-of-64 starts Wednesday afternoon Manila time with an all-Filipino match-up between Mendenilla and Corteza, while Tanio will be facing American Nick Van Den Berg. Biado, meanwhile, will take on Tahki Zarekani. Gabica will face Mika Immonen of Finland while Cuartero goes up against Ahmad Taufiq Murni of Brunei. Alba collides with Chang Jun Lin of Chinese Taipei, Alcano takes on Chris Orme of Canada, and Rota battles Chang Yu Lin of Chinese Taipei. Lining faces Oliver Ortmann of Germany and Orcollo clashes with Muhammad Zulfikri of Indonesia. Reyes takes on Carlos Cabello of Spain with Bustamante facing off against Tege Sascha Andrej of Germany. De Luna battles Fu Chen Wei of Chinese Taipei while Gomez take on Daryl Peach of England in a rematch of the 2007 World 9-Ball finals match-up. Faron faces Stephan Cohen of France. - Reuben Terrado/JVP, GMA News