BY CHRISTINE MONCADA

ONE Bustamante is a big enough headache for the rest of the 2007 World Pool Championship field. Now there are two.

Joven Bustamante repulsed Japanese Satoshi Kabawata 11-9 and the more renowned Francisco "Django" handily beat former champion Alex Pagulayan 11-2 yesterday to book quarterfinal seats at the Araneta Coliseum.

"Malaki na ang chance natin ngayon, kasi kay Alex lang naman ako kinakabahan," said Django after moving three wins closer to snaring the crown he almost won in 2002.

The former world No. 1 did not have the tough grind he expected after coming out on top on safeties in the fifth frame. He ran out the next seven racks and the hapless Pagulayan threw in the towel when he was about to pocket the 9 on the 13th.

"Ngayon kahit sino na ang makatapat ko," said Django, who next faces the winner of the match between Daryl Peach of England and Harry Stolka of Germany.

Pagulayan took the setback in stride.

"I am not disappointed because I played the guy that I predicted will win this tournament. I lost to the right guy. I will burn his car if he doesn’t win here," the 28-year-old Fil-Canadian quipped.

It was Joven who gained the distinction of being the first Filipino to advance to the next round of this $400,000 event after regaining his bearings following a miscue on the second rack.

"Hindi ko rin alam kung bakit ganu’n ang nangyari. After nu’ng error ko na ’yun sa second rack, kinabahan talaga ako. Buti na lang pinaboran ako ng bola sa huli," said Joven, whose most notable performance yet was to enter the semifinals of the World 8-ball championship last year.

The younger Bustamante won the lag and ran out the opening rack but surrendered the table to Kabawata after missing the striped-9 on the next frame. The Japanese pocketed it and then ran out the next two racks to take a 3-1 lead.

The margin remained at two after eight racks until Bustamante got the better end of the battle of safeties to knot the count at 5-all.

A war of attrition ensued with both players failing to clean up the racks they broke until Bustamante snapped the trend and pocketed four of the next five frames to reach the hill first.

Bustamante, however, missed a long shot on the 3 on the 19th frame that enabled Kawabata to close in at 9-10.

But the Japanese’s break of the 20th rack resulted in a difficult layout, and his safety of the yellow-1 didn’t turn out to be safe at all as the Filipino was able to solve the puzzle to finally close the match and send his debut WPC appearance to the Last 8.

Bustamante next faces Karl Boyes of England, who ended one of the tournament’s giant-killing spree. Boyes, also a first-timer, scored a 10-4 trouncing of European No. 1 Konstantin Stepanov, the man who eliminated Efren "Bata" Reyes and Jeff de Luna.

"Nakita ko na ang laro n’ya. Di s’ya pwedeng pabayaan," Joven said.