Magician Reyes reaches semis

Magician Reyes reaches semis

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Top seed Efren Reyes of the Philippines won his quarterfinal
match against Kuo Po-Cheng of Chinese Taipei in the second leg of
the San Miguel Asian 9-ball Tour at the Hanggar Billiard and
Recreation Center here on Saturday.

Three-time world 8-ball champion Reyes defeated Kuo 9-8 to set
up a semifinal match against 16-year-old Wu Chia-Ching of Chinese
Taipei, who edged out Wanshana Poomjaeng of Thailand 9-2.

Another semifinal match will feature Satoshi Kawabata of Japan
against Yang Chin-Sun of Chinese Taipei.

Kawabata thrashed Toh Lian-Han of Singapore 9-8, while Yang
eked out a 9-6 win over Singapore first leg winner Gandy Valle of
the Philippines in earlier quarterfinal matches.

Reyes and Kuo brought their game to the limit to tie the score
at 8-8.

Kuo could have sealed the game in his favor. He missed a shot
at the ninth ball in frame 17, allowing Reyes to pull off the
final winning strikes for a 9-8 victory.

As Kuo rued the missed chance, Reyes, nicknamed The Magician,
broke in relief after he had looked to be struggling earlier.

"I played badly in the beginning but I got better later on,"
Reyes said after the match.

"I was also lucky as he missed the ninth ball in the last
rack."

Looking ahead for his semifinal match, Reyes said Wu was a
young talented player who had been improving a lot recently.

The two players met three times last year, all finishing in
Reyes' victories.

Wu savored his quarterfinal win over Poomjaeng in the match
which lasted for 50 minutes.

"I played very well, while my opponent couldn't use his
opportunities when he made his shots," Wu said.

Despite a poor record against Reyes, Wu was relishing the
challenge this time around, being spurred by his surprise win
over 1993 world 9-ball champion Chao Fong Pang in the second
round.

"I already defeated Chao, and I will defeat Reyes," the first-
leg finalist said.

Meanwhile, Valle, who won the first leg of the Asian Tour by
beating Wu 11-9, conceded his out-of-sort performance in the
quarterfinals.

"I just played badly," he said shortly after the match.

On Sunday, the semifinals of the second leg of the San Miguel
Asian 9-ball Tour will start at 9:30 a.m., followed by the final.