WARREN "Warrior" Kiamco survived a tough stand from compatriot and double world champion Ronato "Volcano" Alcano to win, 11-7, Thursday and advance to the Final 16 of the on-going $150,000 total pot prize Qatar Open 9-Ball tournament at the Qatar Billiards and Snooker Federation in Al Muntazah Road in Doha, Qatar.
With the tremendous win, the 36-year-old Pasil, Cebu native Kiamco, one of the top players of Jonathan Sy's Negros Billiard Stable will meet another Bugsy Promotion bet World No.1 Dennis "Robocop" Orcollo, winner over another World 9-ball titlist Oliver "The Machine" Ortmann of Germany, 11-6.
Another NBS stalwart Japan based Ramil "Bebeng" Gallego, meanwhile continues his superb performance here by beating 2006 Doha Asian Games 8-ball gold medallist Satoshi "Dynamite" Kawabata of Japan, 11-7. The Bacolod City pride Gallego, former Asian 9-ball tour champion and five-time Japan Champion will square off against countryman Francisco "Django" Bustamante in the next round. Bustamante eliminated Antonio "Ga-Ga" Gabica, 11-2 in an earlier match.
The winner of the match between Kiamco and Orcollo will face the survivor of Gallego and Bustamante tussle's for the quarter-final round.
The limelight fell on Jeffrey "The Bull" De Luna, who ousted 2001 World 9-ball champion Mika "The Iceman" Immonen of Finland, 11-7. His assignment in the next round is Naoyuki Ooi of Japan, who beat reigning national champion Lee Vann "The Slayer" Corteza, 11-9.
Joining them in the "Sweet 16" were 2004 World 9-ball kingpin Alex "The Lion" Pagulayan, and 2007 World 9-ball finalist Roberto "Pinoy Superman" Gomez who toppled their respective rivals.
Pagulayan bested fellow World 9-ball ruler Chia-Ching Wu of Taiwan, 11-10, while Gomez nipped three-time world junior champion Vilmos Foldes of Hungray, 11-3.
Popular cue artists Efren "Bata" Reyes, Marlon "Marvelous" Manalo, Gandy "Yang-Yang" Valle and Middle East based Allan "Surigao" Cuartero were all booted out in this race-to-11, single knock-out format.
Reyes bowed to fellow World 9-Ball ruler Ralf "Kaiser" Souquet of Germany, Manalo succumbed to Thomas "The Lean Machine" Engert of Germany, 11-8, Valle yielded to 2007 US Open 9-ball ruler Shane Van Boening of the United States, 11-10, and Cuartero lost to Niels "The Terminator" Feijen of the Netherlands, 11-3.
In other matches, Darren Appleton of Great Britain stuned Naef Al Jaweeni of Kingdom of Saudia Arabia, 11-3, current world junior champion Pin-Yi Ko of Taiwan defeated Zhang Shuchun ng China, 11-6, Radoslaw Babica of Poland trounced 2004 World 9-ball kingpin Thorsten "The Hitman" Hohmann of Germany, 11-8, and current Guinness Asian 9-ball tour grand champion Jung-Lin Chang of Taiwan crushEd Martin Kempter of Austria, 11-8.
The champion here will receive $40,000, the runner-up gets $20,000, the losing semi-finalists will bring home $10,000 each, 5th to 8th placers will receive $5,000 each, 9thto 16th placers will pockets $2,500 each. While the 17th to 32nd placers will not go home empty-handed with $1,200 each.
