POOL legend Efren “Bata” Reyes stayed in the hunt for the 2012 world 9-ball title when he survived a scare from Toh Lian Han of Singapore, 11-6, on Wednesday night in Doha, Qatar.
The 57-year-old Reyes swept the last five racks to break open a 7-6 match against the surprisingly tough Singaporean as he booked a place in the final 32 of the US$300,000 event he won back in 1999.
The still unbeaten Reyes was joined in the next round by former world 8-ball champion Dennis Orcollo, Lee Van Corteza and Antonio Gabica but stablemate Francisco "Django" Bustamante was not as fortunate, losing to two-time world champion Chao Fong-pang of Chinese-Taipei, 11-6.
Orcollo beat Andrew Kong of Hong Kong, 11-8; Corteza breezed past Serge Das of Belgium 11-4 and Antonio Gabica defeated Mario He of Austria, 11-7 in the day's earlier matches.
Other Filipino bets fell by the wayside.
Israel Rota bowed to Han Hao-xiang of China, 8-11, Marlon Caneda lost to Nick van den Berg of the Netherlands, 6-11, and Elvis Calasang was booted out by John Morra of Canada, 11-7.
The champion will receive US$ 40,000 with the runner-up taking home US$20,000.
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