Two Pinoys In Japan Open Sweet 16! Kiamco Advances As Corteza Beats Kuo Twice

Defending All Japan Champion Filipino Lee Vann Corteza lived up to his nickname as the "The Slayer" when he virtually annihilated twice 2005 World Pool Champion Po-cheng Kuo of Taiwan to join compatriot Warren Kiamco in the Sweet 16 in the ongoing 40th All Japan Championships 2007 at the Hotel New Archaic Hall in Amagasaki-shi, Hyogo, Japan yesterday.

All of this was watched yesterday by Jonathan Sy, president of Negros Billiard Stable who financed the trip of the duo (Corteza and Kiamco), both already assured JPY125,000 in the double elimination format which offers top prize JPY2,000,000 to the champion.

With the victory, the 28-year-old Corteza who hails from Davao City meets the winner of the match between 2005 World Pool Champion winner Chia-Ching Wu of Taiwan and H. Kataoka of Japan.

Dubbed as The Little Monster in pool world, Kuo bowed to Corteza in the third round of winner's brackets late Saturday and yielded again to Corteza yesterday in the round-of-32.

Kuo needed to dispose of Tion Boon Tan of Singapore in the loser's brackets late Saturday to force a rematch to Corteza.

Kiamco, the 37-year-old Pasil, Cebu native on the other hand, the 2007 US Bar 9-Ball Champion and 8-Ball Champion trounced two-time Asian Games 9-ball gold medalist Ching-Shun Yang of Taiwan in the third round of winner's brackets on Saturday then subdued R. Aoki of Japan.

Kiamco will meet the survivor of K. Hanawa of Japan and 2004 World Pool Champion runner-up Pei Wei-chang of Taiwan tussle.

Efren "Bata" Reyes, acknowledged as one of the greatest players of all time, crushed K. Hirota of Japan in the third round of winner's brackets to advance in the round-of-32.

Reyes, 53, prize fighter of Puyat Sports goes up against Y. Morino, who upset Hsiang-chuang Chih of Taiwan in the loser's bracket on Saturday. If Reyes beats Morino he will face T. Takano of Japan or Paul Potier of Canada in the round-of-16.

A possible confrontation between Corteza and Reyes in the quarter-finals, and the survivor goes up against Kiamco in the semi-finals if they past their respective assignments.

Meanwhile, Francisco "Django" Bustamante and Ramil "Bebeng" Gallego were booted out on Saturday.

Bustamante, from Puyat Sports, bowed to Yang while Gallego from Negros Billiard Stable yielded to 1996 World Pool Champion Ralf "Kaiser" Souquet of Germany in the loser's brackets late Saturday.

Another exciting round-of-32 match will be between 2001 World Pool Champion Mika "The Iceman" Immonen of Finland and 2006 Doha Asian Games 8-ball gold medalist Satoshi Kabawata of Japan who hurdled their respective opponents.

In the distaff side, reigning Amway Women's World 9-Ball Champion Xiao Ting-pan of China beat Shu Pin-kao of Taiwan to face Yun Mi-lim of Korea in the round-of-16, winner over Shin Mei-liu of Taiwan.

Pan bagged the top prize $20,000 by beating Filipino Rubilen "Bingkay" Amit in the finals of 2007 Amway Women's World 9-Ball Championship last April 8 in Tao-Yuan, Taiwan. Pan currently No.10 in the Player Money list after accumulating a total of $54,600 in earnings.