MANILA, Philippines - It could have been a rabbit that was pulled off this magician's hat.
Efren "Bata" Reyes came to the country's rescue with an important win on Thursday that helped Team Philippines pull even with the International side in the QC Invasion: Quezon City-Philippines vs The World Grand "Villards" Showdown at the Trinoma Mall in Quezon City.
Reyes, more popularly known as "the Magician", weaved his wand to take down Rodney Morris of the US 7-4.
The victory leveled the Ryder Cup-style tournament to six wins each for the locals and the foreigners.
Earlier, Francisco "Django" Bustamante escaped with a 7-6 cliffhanger over Raj Hundal of India, just after Warren Kiamco lost 7-4 to Thorsten Hohmann of Germany.
With a stalemate after 12 matches, the first side that gets to nine wins will take home the championship purse worth $40,000 (P1.96 million).
The next matches will be between Roberto Gomez versus Yang Ching-shun of Chinese-Taipei; a team event pitting Bustamante, Gomez Alex Pagulayan and Dennis Orcollo versus the quartet of Hundal, Yang, Mike Immonen of Finland and Wu Chia-Ching of Chinese-Taipei; and a singles match between Orcollo and Charlie Williams of the US.
If the showdown isn't decided after the Orcollo-Williams face-off, the next matches will feature another team duel between the group of Reyes, Kiamco, Ronnie Alcano and Lee Van Corteza and the foursome of Hohmann, Morris, Williams, and Fu Jianbo of China.
If the score is tied at 8, a team event will decide the winner, with the RP side represented by Alcano, Gomez, Kiamco and Pagulayan taking on Hundal, Morris, Williams and Wu.
- GMANews.TV