Lee Vann Corteza of the Negros Billiard Stable followed stablemate Ramil Gallego in the round of 64 of the 2007 Philippine World Pool Championships at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City .

Corteza, who hails from Davao City , defeated American Jeremy Jones, 9-4, Sunday night to advance to the knockout phase. The NBS player earlier lost to Serbia 's Goran Mladenovic, 7-9.

Bacolod-born Gallego posted two convincing victories to make the round of 64 in the company of six other Filipinos.

Defending champion Ronnie Alcano, Efren "Bata" Reyes, Francisco "Django" Bustamante, Alex Pagulayan, Joven Bustamante and Antonio Gabica are also in knockout phase of the tournament that stakes $100,000 to the champion.

Meanwhile, Leonardo Andam pulled off a shocking 9-5 win over 2006 WPC runner-up Ralf Soquet of Germany in another preliminary round match.

Andam can clinch a spot in the next round with a victory over Raj Hundal of England. Hundal downed Bernard Tey Choon Kiat of Singapore , 9-4.

Marlon Manalo also inched closer to the next round with a come-from-behind 9-7 win over Serbian D Dabovic.

Thorsten Hohmann, the 2003 champion, bowed to teen-ager Ko Pin-yi of Taiwan , 3-9.

Ko's sensational victory set him up for a duel with Serge Das of Belgium, who pulled off a similar 9-3 win over Edwin Montal, a Filipino representing Canada.

Thomas Engert of Germany trounced Prince M. Billah of Brunei, 9-2. Engert will next face Roman Hybler of the Czech Republic , 9-7 winner over Lee Chenman of Hong Kong .

Other players advancing to the next phase were Taiwanese Chang Jun-lin, Lu Hui-chan, 2005 World 9-ball champion Wu Chia-ching and Yang Ching-shun, Oliver Ortmann and Harald Stolka of Germany, Alex Lely and Nick van den Berg of Holland, Luong Chi Dung and Pham Tuan Ngoc of Vietnam.

Also reaching the round of 64 were Americans Corey Deuel and Charlie Williams, Alain Martel of Canada, Philipp Stojanovic of Croatia, Karl Boyes of England, Mika Immonen of Finland, Vilmos Foldes of Hungrary, Muhammad Zulfikri of Indonesia,Kenichi Uchigaki of Japan, Tony Drago of Malta,Radoslaw Babica of Poland,Goran Mladenovic of Serbia and Montenegro,Chan Keng Kwang of Singapore and David Alcaide of Spain.*CPT

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