FRANCISCO 'Django' Bustamante and AJ Manas suffered early exits to start the Roobet Philippines Open on Tuesday at Gateway Mall 2 in Cubao.
The Filipino bets were among the first casualties in the 128-man single-elimination tournament, continuing their streak of bad luck after Team Asia's comprehensive defeat at the hands of Team Rest of the World in the Reyes Cup just two days prior.
Bustamante got whitewashed by Edgie Geronimo, 10-0; while Manas fell to unheralded Rommel Janael Santos, 10-9, after blowing an 8-3 lead.
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Other Team Asia members, though, vented their ire on the opposition to start their respective campaigns.
Carlo Biado blanked David Keith Dennison of USA, 10-0; Hong Kong's Robbie Capito routed Sowiset Namfon of Thailand, 10-0; Vietnam's Duong Quoc Hoang dominated Aleksandar Atanasov of North Macedonia, 10-0; and Indonesia's Albert Januarta defeated Yuki Komiya of Japan, 10-3.
Former Team Asia members were also in peak form, with Johann Chua taking down Tony Piazza of USA, 10-1, and world No. 1 Aloysius Yapp getting the better of Raphael Dabreo of USA, 10-2.
David Alcaide also started his title-retention bid in style with a 10-1 victory over Rodlin John Bautista, as last year's Philippine Open runner-up Arseni Sevastyanov of Finland beat Orlyn Biteranta, 10-3.
Other notable Filipinos who emerged victorious after the first round were Jeffrey de Luna, who beat Ryosuke Maruoka of Japan, 10-4; Jefrey Roda (defeated Lauro Bongay, 10-5); Anton Raga (defeated Jhon Narvaez, 10-6); Marvin Asis (defeated Joey Fuertes, 10-8); and legends Antonio Lining (defeated Max Eberle of USA, 10-6) and Dennis Orcollo (defeated Henrick Doguiles, 10-3).
Unfortunately, former world champions Alex Pagulayan and Ronnie Alcano both bowed out early. Pagulayan lost to Edwin Dela Cruz Gamas, 10-6, while Alcano got shut out by Pierfrancesco Garzia of Italy, 10-0.
Chezka Centeno also had a spirited fight before losing to Thorsten Hohmann, 10-5.
Leading the foreign delegation were Scotland's Jayson Shaw who routed Kelson Juan of USA, 10-1; USA's Billy Thorpe who won over Esteban Robles of Costa Rica, 10-7, fellow American Justin Bergman who dominated Hristijan Prodanov of North Macedonia, 10-2; and German teen star Felix Vogel who dealt Yoichi Onodera of Japan a 10-1 beatdown.
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