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Reyes Keeps Tournament Hopes Alive
EFREN Reyes clinched a vital victory that kept his hopes alive of reaching the knock-out stages in the 2006 Philippines World Pool Championships.
Reyes lost in his first match on Saturday against American Tony Crosby and a second defeat would have ended Bata's chances of making the last 64. His opponent on Sunday was Radoslaw Babica of Poland and he was also in a similar position where a loss would eliminate him from the tournament.
Bata, who won the 1999 World Championship and was favourite to win again this year, lost the first rack but quickly recovered to take a 4-2 lead. However, Babica kept fighting and looked capable of causing a shock as the match became a hill-hill affair in the race to eight.
Backed by a large partisan crowd at the Philippine International Convention Center, Reyes held his nerve to clinch the last rack and win the match 8-7, to the delight of the home supporters.
He now faces a must-win clash against Roy Apancho of Indonesia on the main table on Monday, November 6.
However, Reyes refused to get too optimistic ahead of this important match. He said: "I don't want to take him lightly because he beat Babica by a big margin (8-1) and I only beat him (Babica) 8-7. That's why I can't take any chances with the match as Apancho is capable of causing damage."
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