A "Bata" among men.

(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Byline: Manolo R. Inigo

UNLUCKY Efren "Bata" Reyes was a picture of a man dazzled and confused following his sorry loss to Mika "The Iceman" Immonen of Finland in last Saturday's finals of the well-attended first ever Cafe Puro-sponsored Philippine Open and Invitationals 9-Ball Billiards Championships at the Octagon Hall of the Robinsons Galleria.

Many were expecting Reyes to end the year on a bright note here by emerging the champion of this tournament, but their "Bata" lost to the visitor from Finland, 13-12, in the nerve-frazzling finals.

After storming to a big 9-4 lead in the race-to-13 showdown, Bata found himself-in the words of esteemed TV analyst Andy Jao-deserted by the "gods of billiards," enabling Immonen to come back strongly and, with the count at 10-6, pieced together four racks in a row to equalize at 10-all.

"Everybody's sitting on pins and needles," Jao said of the action in rack 25 where the two pool masters figured in a nail-biting battle of wits and safeties, with the count tied at 12-12. But in the end, youth prevailed experience as the 29-year-old Immonen, thoroughly cool, calculated and full of concentration, outlasted the 49-year-old Reyes. Now the world's No. 1 pool pro, Immonen, won $20,000 from the sponsors and the organizing Puyat Sports headed by renowned sports patrons brothers Popit and Putch Puyat and ABS-CBN. Early this year, Immonen also won the inaugural On Cue 1 Philippines-versus-Europe tournament, besting Ralf Souquet of Germany in an all-European finals.

The good-looking Immonen first made sports history in 2001 when he won the World Pool Championship in Cardiff, making sure that the world pool title is back in Europe following the Asian domination of the championship the past two years when Fong Pang-chao of Taiwan won in 2000 and Reyes in 1999.