Francisco “Django” Bustamante and Mark Estiola regained their winning ways after edging their respective rivals to bolster their campaigns in the 2025 Las Vegas 10-Ball Open at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino on Saturday, Feb. 22 (Philippine time).

Still reeling from a 4-2, 4-3 loss to Germany’s Ralf Soquet that relegated him to the loser’s bracket, the 61-year-old Bustamante immediately picked his old form back and downed Canada’s Ericson Vargas, 4-0, 4-3, to stay in contention in this 128-player field event.

The victory put the 2002 Asian Games champion into a next meeting with another Canadian in Randal Bagot to keep his bid alive.

Estiola, for his part, routed United States’ Shane Winters, 4-0, 4-1, to also arrange a faceoff with another American in Tony Chohan.

Like Bustamante, Estiola was also relegated to the losers’ qualification after yielding to Fil-Canadian Alex Pagulayan, 4-2, 4-2.

Meanwhile, Roberto Gomez and Jeff De Luna posted contrasting victories to remain in contention in this $125,000 event.

Gomez had to dig deep to survive Norway’s Emil Gangflot, 4-2, 3-4, 4-3, while De Luna nipped United States’ Tim Tonjum, 4-0, 4-2.

With their triumphs, Gomez and De Luna set up their next meetings with Polish opponents, Daniel Maciol and Mateusz Sniegocki, respectively.