Bustamante, who had to see a doctor hours before the finals, played a total of 47 racks Sunday night and rallied from an early three-rack deficit to beat Dennis Orcullo, 15-13, in the Philippine 9-Ball Open at the Robinson’s Galleria Trade Hall.

His route to the finals was long and hard.

In the semis, he had to dig into his bag of tricks to beat Mario Tolentino, 11-8. Tolentino was the same player who stunned billiards icon Efren "Bata" Reyes in the opener.

Bustamante ’s victory earned him R500,000 in the tournament co-organized by Puyat Sports and Solar Sports.

Orcullo, who downed Ronnie Alcano, 11-8, in the other semifinal pair, settled for R250,000.

"Mabuti naman natapos na. Hirap na talaga ako," said Bustamante, whose wife Mila was at the venue from Day 1 to cheer him, comfort and soothe the pain on his right elbow.

Bustamante, known far and wide for his shattering breaks, used a soft break throughout the game as he nursed his aching elbow. The result was nearly ominous. He failed to hold his breaks thrice in the alternate break format, as Orcullo took an 8-6 lead.

It would have been worse if not for a brilliant carom shot on the red three that pocketed the nine-ball on the sixth rack that stopped a four-rack tear by Orcullo and pulled Bustamante within 2-4.

"May halong s’werte na ‘yun dahil dikit ‘yung seven at nine tapos walang pasok ‘yung three dahil dikit sa pato," recalled Bustamante.

Orcullo also had his share of brilliant moments.

His four-cushion kiss shot on the blue two set up an easy clean up and gave him his biggest lead at 4-1.

Orcullo’s dry break on the 15th frame proved to be the turning point of the match as Bustamante clustered two racks to level at 8-all.

A pocketing error by Orcullo on the 25th led to another two-rack cluster by Bustamante and shoved the former world No. 1 to the hill, 14-12.

Both players held their breaks from there to settle the final score.