Marlon Manalo article in Billiards Digest - 1st part
Got this from the matchroom forum. I will post it in two parts because this forum would only accept 13,000 characters.
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TWO YEARS AGO, NO ONE OUTSIDE THE PHILIPPINES HAD HEARD OF MARLON MANALO. TODAY HE IS CONSIDERED THE COUNTRY'S NEXT SUPERSTAR. WITH HIGH FINISHES AT TWO MAJOR EVENTS AND A RENO OPEN TITLE, 2005 HAS BEEN THE YEAR OF MANALO'S... BREAK THROUGH
BREAKING THROUGH M A R L 0 N M A N A L 0
Chatting into a cell phone held in his left hand, and alter¬nately steering and shifting with his right, Marion Manalo deftly navigates his new silver Honda Civic through the maddening squall that is daily Manila traffic. With a magazine reporter in the front seat, Manalo conducts a live interview over a local radio station. At the same time, he dodges cars that are making turns without signal lights, passenger jeepneys stopping in the middle of the road to pick up riders, and pedestrians darting unannounced across the street.
Even after the radio interview, Manalo's cell phone remains busy. Another radio reporter rings to set up a guest appearance, a corporation calls wanting him to make a motivational speech. He has to get plane tickets to England for the World Pool Masters, then on to America for, among others, the World Summit of Pool and the U.S. Open. And then there's the time-consum¬ing task of getting travel visas, and e¬mailing tournament organizers in the States. There's also a business to run here at home. And of course, he must spend time with his pride and joy, his 4-year ¬old daughter, Semper Kin.
It is two weeks since Manalo took third place at the World Pool Championship in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and he is juggling the demands of a suddenly burgeoning pool career, living on a high wire every¬day. Any doubts about his ability to han¬dle the heights, or the view, easily vanish when you see him manage Manila traffic, where rules seem to be made up as you go. Actually, this is the easy part, as Manalo's quiet confidence while driving shows. These are his streets - he grew up here and he still calls Metro Manila home. But it's not just here where Manalo takes pressure with a grain of salt. Anyone who has seen his perfor¬mances on the pool table in the last two years knows that pressure is something Manalo is proving to be particularly adept at handling.
The list of accomplishments grows longer with, each passing day. Most notably there was the successive spank¬ings of greats Ching-Shun Yang, Francisco Bustamante and the legendary Efren Reyes at the 2004 World Pool Championships in Taipei, Taiwan. That November he took second place to compatriot Reyes at the World 8-Ball Championships, despite it being his first time playing 8-ball. Earlier this year, after shunning the San Miguel Asian 9-Ball Tour due to a dispute, he embarked on a daring solo road trip to the States. It was his first ever trip to America, where he promptly won both the Sands Regency Reno Open and the Hard Times Jamboree, never losing a single match, and tak¬ing home close to $30,000. On his way to claiming his bronze medal in this year's World Pool Championship,
he ran 25 straight racks,
a tournament record, and shut out two opponents in a row:
That he has only been playing 9-ball for little more than two years, and that all this is being done in a style which has been at times both dominating and breathtaking, has people starting to take notice.. Clearly Manalo has the ability to string together racks and rout his oppo¬nents. Even more important, he possess¬es the trait that makes legends in the game: He's a bona fide closer. And even more tantalizing, after over a decade in the snooker world, this 29 year old from Mandaluyong City in Metro Manila is, by his own admission, just getting going in pool.
Which, inevitably, leads to the obvious question so many pool fans and players are starting to ask: With Filipino pool deity Reyes in his early 50’s, Bustamante seemingly in a prolonged slump, and 2004 world 9-ball champ Alex Pagulayan considered as much Canadian as Filipino, is Marion Manalo the next Great Player out of the Philippines`?
For Manalo, this question only brings forth a shy laugh and a shake of the head. He's too polite, too nice to ever suggest` that he is the heir to that lofty-- mantle, especially the exalted. position held by his longtime friend Reyes.
"When I retire I want to be remem¬bered as me," the friendly, soft-spoken Manalo said. " I don't want to be in Efren's shadow. I want to be different:" Although said with the utmost respect for the Magician, there's obviously a quiet poise there that suggests pool fans are in for something special in the next few years, something unique that doesn't come around the block everyday. Indeed, this is a Filipino pool player who is dif¬ferent from his countrymen in many aspects. and has every intention of show¬ing it.
Manalo's path has veered far from the one that most Filipino pool greats have followed. He didn't come from an impoverished background. He never had to use his stick gambling in order to earn his daily bread. In fact, he doesn't partic¬ularly care for gambling. He doesn't smoke, and he didn't drop out of school at an early age to play pool. He is the only Filipino pool professional who has a college degree, having graduated from Jose Rizal University in 1997 with a degree in Economics. That same year he opened his own poolhall and has nur¬tured it from one table to 12 tables today.
Manalo's roots are planted firmly in the hard work and warmth of his Catholic, middle-class family. He's the second to the youngest of six children. His father, Claro, once owned a small trucking business. His mother, Caridad, worked as a grade-school teacher and currently runs the small bakery and store in front of the family home. Marlon, still single, lives with his par¬ents, and regularly sees his daughter, who lives nearby with her mother.
The Manalo family home, which also includes Marlon's open-air 888 Billiard Hall attached on the side, is located on a quiet side street only one block awav from the bustle of Metro Manila. On a typical day, Marlon's mother can be seen standing behind the counter at the store and bakery. His father sits at the entrance to the pool¬hall, chatting to friends and observing the 12 tables inside, which are regular¬ly filled with college, kids playing 9¬ball and 15-ball rotation. Various rela¬tives come and go.
Marlon's interest in pool came through his father, whose hobby was managing local pool players - including family friend Santos Sambajon -
and backing them in small-time money games around town. It was Claro's way of being involved in a sport he loved and, at the same time, lending a hand to the poorer local guys, who needed to pay an urgent bill or help a relative. Instead of giving handouts. Claro would back some of the good local players in pool matches for small wagers. If they won, they kept the winnings. If they lost, they weren't out any money.
It was because of his dad's involve¬ment in the local pool scene that the young Marlon got to meet the big names in Philippine pool at the time.
"Efren would sometimes come to our house and drink," Manalo recalled. Claro, sensing the 11-year-old Marlon had some innate talent, thought his son might be able to become the number one player in Mandaluyong City, a growing metropolis which would soon become a part of a greater Metro Manila. So he threw him into some of those money games. At first Marlon hardly ever won a match.
"My father wanted me to lose," Manalo said. "So he put me in against better players. If I win he tells the hus¬tler to play harder."
"I wanted him to be tough," Claro said. "He would always get upset, but I told him, `Marlon, you're still young. Don't look for players whom you can beat easily."'
One particular small-time money match came at the Gameball billiard hall across town, when Manalo was 15 years old. Gameball's owner, Joaquin Perez de Tagle, was also the founder and secretary general of the Billiard and Snooker Congress of the Philippines, the governing body of pool in the coun¬try. After watching a young Marlon play money games, de Tagle knew there was some serious potential in his midst.
"Marlon's mind was settled," said de Tagle, who remains a close confidant of Manalo to this day. "He was a good kid. He came from a nice family. He was going to school. He was only 15, but he was already at that level of guys in their 30s and 40s. I told him, `If you devote your time, you'll be number one in snooker in the Philippines."' De Tagle encouraged Marlon to try snooker because he needed snooker players for the upcoming 1991 Southeast Asian Games in Manila.
"I like the challenge of snooker, the position play," Manalo said. "You have to be precise. In pool, even if you miss, a ball can go in. I also liked snooker because of the people who play the game. They are more dignified. In pool there are a lot of bad attitudes:'
Practicing six to seven hours a day, while still attending school, Marlon made it on to the national team that year - which also included a then-snooker¬playing Reyes - taking home a bronze medal. Through the 1990s, Manalo won medals in subsequent Southeast Asian Games, Asian Games and the World Amateur Snooker Championships. In 2000, he won the Asian Snooker Championships in Hong Kong. The next year he won a silver medal in snooker at the World Games in Akita, Japan. Despite the impressive achievements, however, they were all but ignored back home, where pool domi¬nated the billiards landscape.
"When I won the Asian Snooker Championship, nobody in the Philippines even knew," Manalo said. "It wasn't even written about in the papers:" Then at the 2002 Asian Games in Korea, - Marlon realized where his future lay.
"I was watching all the 9-ball players and I'm telling myself, `I can beat these guys,"' he said. "It's not so much the money I was thinking about. It's the challenge of beating guys like Efren and Django Bustarnante:' Putting aside the snooker cue, he set about learning the intricacies of 9-ball - how to control the cue, the break, the safety play.
He took second in two local pool tour¬naments, before De Tagle, through the BSCP, was able to secure Manalo an entry into the 2003 World Pool Championship in Wales. It was Marlon's first international 9-ball com¬petition.
"I told him, `Now is your time,"' De Tagle said. Marlon performed impres¬sively, going undefeated in the group stages, before losing in the round of 32 to Korea's Young- Hwa Jeong.
"I realized then, it's another level now;' Manalo said. "You cannot afford to miss. They'll eat you alive:' To his surprise, however, he also discovered that his snooker background provided him with a solid foundation. "Because of snooker, my stroke is good under pressure;' he said. "Snooker helps me in crunch time:' And Manalo admits he thrives in tough circumstances.
"I like playing good players;' he said "It helps my game. I play better when there's pressure. Usually when there's no pressure. I lose:"
Although fueled with confidence at his newfound career, Manalo would not find the going particularly easy in Manila. He's always been friendly with Reyes, Bustamante and the other Filipino pool pros, often sharing rooms with them on the road, but he doesn't associate with them day-to-day in Manila.
"I'm friends with them but I'm not used to hanging out with them," he said. "They do a lot of gambling, and I don't want to be identified with that world, that I earn my living playing money games. Since I'm on the national team, I need to set a good example for kids:" This association with the national team would also lead to career clashes. While the national team existed for pur¬poses of winning medals in the various
regional amateur games, most of the big professional tournaments in the Philippines were promoted through longtime pool patron Aristeo "Putch" Puyat, who handles the careers of Reyes, Bustamante and others from time to time. Until recently, the rules for gaining entry into some tournaments were not always clear. When the 2004 Asian 9-Ball Tour was about to begin, Manalo desperately wanted to play. But he disagreed with the limited spaces allotted national team members and, out of principle, he chose not to enter the qualifying.
