World No. 4 Lee Van Corteza cruised into the semifinals but compatriot Jeffrey De Luna bowed out in the 2010 Predator World Tour in Lloret de Mar, Spain.

Winner of six Southeast Asian Games gold medals from 1999 to 2005, Corteza raced to a commanding 5-2 lead before posting an 8-2 triumph over local bet Jose Luis Gonzales to advance into the knock out stage of the event that stakes a total purse of 50,000 euros (P3.3 million).

De Luna, silver medalist in the 2006 Doha Asian Games, was shown the door after he absorbed his second loss in the race-to-8, winner’s break competition.

He was first beaten by Neils Feijen of The Netherlands, 8-5, before Rodney Morris of the United States took the sting out of him in a hill-hill battle, 7-8, in the loser’s bracket.

Corteza and De Luna launched their respective campaigns on a high note with Corteza thumping Carlos Bogas of Spain, 8-4 and De Luna clobbering Roda Bolhaj of Morocco, 8-5.

For his win, Corteza is now assured of P66, 078 and a free ticket and hotel accommodation to the next Tour tentatively set in Sao Paolo, Brazil this summer.

Of the 16 semifinalists, six are Americans, including Tony Crosby, Charlie Williams and Steve Moore.

The champion in the event pockets10,000 euros (about P660,600).

Crosby blanked Carlos Cabello of Spain, 8-0, Williams trounced Oscar Dominguez of Mexico, 8-2, and Moore defeated Nuno Santos of Portugal, 8-5.

After suffering an opening day loss, Spain’s David Alcaide, who is looking for his second Tour title bounced back with two straight wins capped with an 8-2 win over compatriot Raul Hebles.

Other matches saw Oliver Ortmann of Germany crushing Jayson Shaw of Scotland, 8-2, and Huidji See of the Netherlands beating Stephan Cohen of France, 8-7.

World No. 1 Mika Immonen of Finland, meantime, was eliminated by Mexico’s Ernesto Dominguez. [via]