Bustamante secures A Mild pool title
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post/Kuta, Bali
Francisco Bustamante of the Philippines won the A Mild Billiard International Open after defeating Mika Immonen of Finland 11-10 in a tightly-contested final match at the Paradiso Bowling and Billiard Center here on Friday.
Bustamante found himself trailing early before pulling to a 6- 3 lead. The Filipino capitalized on Immonen's suddenly ragged performance during which the Finn fell to a flurry of mistakes in the middle frames.
However, Immonen regrouped to even it up at 7-7 with Bustamante later admitting he was nervous, which resulted in his shots going astray.
In the remaining frames of the game, the two players traded wins until the deciding frame.
At 10-10, the two players each missed what appeared to be routine shots on the 4-ball before Bustamante cleaned the table.
Before his last shot on the 9-ball, Bustamante paused a few seconds and rubbed his hands on his chest, full of smiles to the spectators in sheer confidence that he would be able to make it and seal the victory. He did.
"We seemed to be counting on luck (in the past few frames). Luckily, It was me that could send the final strike successfully," Bustamante said.
Bustamante cruised to the final after defeating Yoshihiro Kitatani of Japan 9-4 in the round of 16, Chang Pei Wei of Chinese Taipei 9-5 in the quarterfinals and giant killer Luong Chi Dung of Vietnam 9-2 in the semis.
Luong had been the shock winner over three-time World 9-ball champion Efren Reyes of the Philippines on Thursday.
Immonen booked his finals spot with wins over Siaw Wieto of Indonesia 9-8, Jeong Young Hwa of South Korea 9-6 and Chu Hu-Ming of China 9-1.
Chu had been the conqueror of William Ipaenen of Indonesia, who chalked up a big upset on Thursday by defeating world pool champion Alex Pagulayan in the round of 32.
The tournament, which provided a total of Rp 208 million (approximately US$22,000) in cash prizes, was officially closed by chairman of the National Sports Council (KONI) Agum Gumelar.