Reyes Eliminated at 2007 Philippines World Pool Championship

Reyes Eliminated at 2007 Philippines World Pool Championship
Efren Reyes is out of the 2007 Philippines World Pool Championship. The 53-year-old Filipino legend went down on TV Table 2 at the Araneta Coliseum, Quezon City, Manila, at the hands of European No.1 Konstantin Stepanov of Russia.
For Reyes, the winner of this event in 1999, the dream is over for another year as he was well beaten 10-5 by the 24 year-old from Moscow.
Stepanov lead 3-0 before Reyes gave the full arena hope as he levelled it at 3-3. The Russian pulled away though to lead 7-4 and then 8-5 before clinching the final two racks for victory.
He can now look forward to a very tough draw in the round of 32 as he faces Jeff ‘Bata’ De Luna, a possible heir to the Reyes thrown.
Another young Filipino who could take Reyes’ mantle is Roberto Gomez, the 29-year-old who resides in Quezon City. Gomez put paid to Dutchman Alex Lely’s hopes as he drubbed him 10-1 on the easy breaking TV Table 1.
Nicknamed ‘Superman’, Gomez is a former ABS-CBN news reporter but if he continues in a similar vein this week, the news hounds will be chasing him.
He soon got the measure of the table and employed the soft break to excellent effect and he can now look ahead to a match against former two-time champion Chao Fong-pang tomorrow (Thursday).
Gomez said: I was watching television a couple of days ago the match between Earl Strickland and Li He-wen and I noticed that Earl shifted to the soft break so I thought ‘it could work’.
Now I tried it in my match here and the wing-ball kept going in. I think that was my edge for the match.
A lot of players were using the soft break, I went with the flow and it worked.
You have to just play your own game, your opponent is really yourself so you have to take it easy, relax and never mind your opponent.
There was less good fortune for another Pinoy hope as Poland’s Radoslaw Babica, playing in his ninth World Pool Championship, put in his best performance to date to put paid to Marlon Manalo�s title aspirations, winning 10-1 on table 7.
Babica, the 28 year-old from Poznan, recorded seven break and runs to put himself in the driving seat and restricted Manalo to two visits to extricate himself from safeties.
I was lucky to make it through the qualifications on Saturday. I didn’t play well and only got through because my opponents didn�t play well either, said Babica.
He defeated Carlos Castro (Nicaragua) and Chun Min-hung of Taiwan after a defeat at the hands of Vilmos Foldes.
Today though I really played my best and was really delighted with the way it went. I need to try and relax now and see if I can do the same tomorrow, he added.