DOHA—Francisco ‘Django’ Bustamante boosted his bid of becoming the first back-to-back WPA World 9-Ball champion in nearly two decades as he beat a German rival on Wednesday to advance into the Final 32 stage of the prestigious tournament at the Al Sadd Sports Club here.

The 47-year-old Bustamante outplayed Sascha-Andrej Tege, 11-3, setting himself up for a rare victory in this event in consecutive years last accomplished by the great Earl Strickland of the United States in 1990-91.

Nine other Philippine bets survived the first knockout stage of the eight-day tournament.

And the great Efren ‘Bata’ Reyes was not one of them.

Reyes, champion of this event in 1999, suffered a terrible loss at the hands of countryman Caneda Villamor, an overseas worker in nearby Saudi Arabia who posted an 11-5 win.

Still, going 10-of-17 wasn’t bad at all for the Filipinos.

Former world 9-Ball and 8-Ball champion Renato Alcano, Dennis Orcollo, Lee Van Corteza, Caro Biado, Allan Cuartero, Antonio Lining, Antonio Gabica, and Vicenancio Tanio made it to the next round in different styles as the Philippines still remains with the brightest hope of winning that lucrative $36,000 top individual purse out of the total $250,000 prize.

Alcano, who had to go through the losers’ bracket to advance into the knockout stage, outlasted Canada’s Chris Orme, 11-7, while Orcollo encountered a surprisingly tough opponent in Muhammad Zulfikri from India before scoring an 11-9 victory.

But the biggest and most inspiring victory fashioned out by any Filipino for the day might have belonged to Gabica, a gold medalist in the 2007 Southeast Asian Games and only ranked 310th in the world by AZ Billiards.

Gabica received one of the toughest trials of his pool life before booting out 2001 champion Mikka Immonen of Finland, 11-10.

Corteza, on the other hand, eliminated countryman Oliver Medenilla, 11-5; Biado trampled Iran’s Takhti Zarekani, 11-6; Cuartero hammered out an 11-9 win over Brunei’s Ahmad Taufiq Murni; Lining outplayed Germany’s Oliver Ortmann, the 1995 champion, 11-5; while Tanio stunned Nick van den Berg of The Netherlands, 11-7.

The other Filipinos who failed to advance were Joven Alba, Israel Rota, Jeffrey de Luna, Roberto Gomez and Raymund Faraon.

Alba bowed to Chang Jun-lin of Chinese-Taipei, 5-11; Rota bowed to Chang Yu-lun of Chinese-Taipei, 9-11; De Luna lost to Fu Che wei of Chinese-Taipei, 9-11; Gomez, the 2007 runner-up, droped an 11-4 decision to Daryl Peach of Great Britain; while Faraon failed to overcome Stephan Cohen of France, 9-11.