MANILA, 2 January 2004 — Filipino Francisco “Django” Bustamante has distinguished himself as the richest player in the world billiards pro tour this year.
Bustamante has earned a total of $97,725 (about 5.4 million pesos) in topping the world pool money list.
This honor came after his heartbreaking campaign in the last Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam. He failed to win a medal in the 9-ball singles events of the Vietnam games.
Overall, the 40-year-old ace from Tarlac province took part in 16 events worldwide and dislodged from the top money-making list countryman and bosom buddy Efren “Bata” Reyes, the tour’s top earner in 2001 and 2002. Bustamante, formerly based in Biel, Germany, topped the Joss Northeast 9-ball Tour stop No. 17 and 18 and the $50,000 winner-take-all 9-ball International Challenge of Champions held in August in Uncasville, Connecticut.
Interestingly, Bustamante placed no lower than fifth in eight events, including the World Pool Championships in Cardiff, Wales, proving that his selection as 2002 International Player of the Year was no fluke.
A whistling performance in the 2002 World Pool Championships in Cardiff, Wales, earned for Bustamante a collective nod of approval from the Billiards and Snookers Congress of the Philippines (BSCP) for him to form the backbone of the country’s campaign in the Busan Asian Games last year.
Bustamante finished second to American pool great Earl ‘The Pearl’ Strickland in the 2002 World Pool Championships.
The BSCP initially did not want to include Bustamante to its Busan squad but apparently had a change of heart after the 38-year-old cue-master rose above personal tragedy to place a fighting second in the world meet.
The BSCP was impressed by the Filipino’s sentimental run in Cardiff, offered a spot to him a day before he lost to Strickland in the finals. Regarded as one of the world’s finest billiards players today, Bustamante immediately declared his willingness and readiness to play for flag and country in Busan.
His showing in Cardiff, indeed, triggered a sudden change of heart by the BSCP.
Bustamante returned from Cardiff to sad homecoming as he was grieving for his eight-year-old daughter’s death.
His achievement earned him 1.5 million pesos, but it was not enough to ease the pain of losing his only daughter Mariel, whom he regarded as his “lucky charm.”
She died just as the Cardiff event was reaching its crucial stages.
Mariel’s fragile body gave way to an attack of meningococcemia, a disease which usually strikes infants and is characterized by the presence of the meningococcic bacteria in the bloodstream.
For five days in Cardiff, Bustamante tried to put the image of Mariel, whose picture is always in his wallet, as a rallying point as he played against the world’s best of the best in billiards. He used her memory as inspiration in the trying matches that demanded his full skill and concentration.
Bustamante was named Player of the Year by the US magazine Billiards Digest in 1998 and earned the same honor from the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) a year later.
Among his major titles were the Japan Open, where he routed Ralf Souquet, 9-0, in the finals, the IBC World Tour in Munich, Germany, the 2002 Motolite World 9-ball Challenge at the Araneta Coliseum where he whipped American Corey Deuel, 13-8, in the finals, the World Pool Masters in Essex (UK) where he nipped Strickland, 7-6, in the finals, and the 1998 Tulsa 9-ball Open in Oklahoma.
A member of the Puyat Sports team, Bustamante also finished second in the World Pool League in Warsaw, Poland, and third in the world pool championship in Cardiff in 1999.
Reyes and Bustamante wound up the top two money-makers in the US circuit last year. According to AzBilliards, Reyes earned a total of $126, 200 while Bustamante pocketed $122,200, not counting the incentives from his Busan triumph.
Reyes proved his class with four major tournament victories, including the $50,000 winner-take-all “Challenge of Champions” where he beat 2001 World Pool Champion Mika Immonen in a nerve-wracking, sudden-death, one-rack playoff.
He also successfully defended his World Pool League crown in Warsaw, Poland, took the Café Puro Challenge of the Masters by beating Bustamante handily in the finals and added the Shooters Labor Day Weekend Open 9-Ball Tournament to his trophy room. He won a total of $215,362 in 2001 and $79,930 in 2000. Bustamante won a total of six major tournaments and broke out of the shadow of his bosom buddy.
Bustamante has been named the 2002 AzBilliards Men’s Player of the Year, winning the award over a host of other top contenders, among them former European champion Ralf Souquet of Germany.
AzBillliards, the longest running and widely-respected United States-based website on billiards and pool, based its decision on the fact that in their head-to-head duels this year, Bustamante beat Souquet in the finals of the Gabriels Las Vegas Invitational and the IBC Tokyo 9-Ball International event.
