The Philippines Franciso “Django” Bustamante won the final match to help Asia clinch the 2010 Men’s 9-Ball Team Challenge over a top-class Europen team at the Sutra Hall of the Rizqun International Hotel in Gadong, Brunei Darussalam.
In an exciting three-day battle which went one way first and then swung the other way, the championship was decided in the final match when Bustamante faced Holland’s Nick Van Den Berg.
Van Den Berg took an early 2-1 lead but Bustamante clawed back with a break and run-out to tie the count at 2-2 which AZ Billiards said gave him the momentum as he raced through the next three racks to win 5-2 and give Team Asia the top prize of $27,000.
Team Europe led by Ralf Souquet of Germany was favored to win with a team that included Van Den Berg, Darren Appleton of Britain, Imran Majid also of Britain and Russia’s Ruslan Chinakov.
But they didn’t reckon with Filipino pool legends Efren “Bata” Reyes and Bustamante, Chine-Taipei stars Pon Yi Ko and Hui Chan Lu and Brunei’s Teo Chee Soon who played alongside Prince Muhtadee Billah in the recent Southeast Asian Games in Laos.
Day one consisted of scotch doubles matches and although Europe raced to an early 2-1 lead Team Asia came charging back to win the last two matches to end the day one up at 3-2.
That lead was extended to 4-2 when Hui Chan Lu edged Imran Majid 5-4. The two teams split the next two matches which gave Team Asia a 5-3 lead with two matches left to play on Day two.
Team Europe showed its ability to fight back when Van Den Berg defeated Reyes 5-3 and Apleton squeezed past Pin Yi Ko 5-4 with tied the tally at 5-5 going into the final day of competition.
Souquet played some excellent pool to rout an off form Reyes 5-0 to give Europe a one game edge at 6-5 but Chinese-Taipei’s Hui Chan Lu quickly evened the score at 6-6 with a comfortable 5-2 win over Appleton.
Imran Majid once again pushed Team Europe to another one match lead when Majid overcame hometown player Teo Chee Soon 5-3 to take Team Europe to the hill. But once again the match was even when Ko defeated Chinakhov to set the stage for a deciding showdown between Bustamante and Van Den Berg which the Filipino won fairly comfortably 5-2 to clinch the victory for Team Asia.
Team Europe had to settle for prize money of $13,000.
Scores:
Day 1
Ko & Lu 5-1 Van Den Berg & Chinakhov
Appleton & Majid 5-4 Reyes and Soon
Chinakhov & Souquet 5-2 Lu & Bustamante
Ko & Soon 5-4 Van Den Berg and Majid
Reyes & Bustamante 5-4 Appleton & Souquet
Day 2
Lu 5-4 Majid
Souquet 5-1 Bustamante
Soon 5-2 Chinakhov
Van Den Berg 5-3 Reyes
Appleton 5-4 Ko
Day 3
Souquet 5-0 Reyes
Lu 5-2 Appleton
Majid 5-3 Soon
Ko 5-3 Chinakhov
Bustamante 5-2 Van Den Berg
