Unheralded Johann Chua sustained his incredible run in the 2012 WPA World Pool Championship, but the country’s top bets—Dennis Orcollo and Lee Van Corteza—fell by the wayside in a rash of upsets at Al Saad Sports Club in Doha, Qatar.
A qualifier who had little expectation to get far in this tournament, Chua rolled past Daniele Corrieri of Italy, 11-4, to advance to the Round of 32, along with compatriots Antonio Gabica, Elmer Haya, Raymond Faraon, Ramil Gallego and World No. 2 Carlo Biado.
Gabica also advanced with an 11-7 dumping of Iran’s Medhi Rasekhi, Haya tallied an 11-4 win over countryman Francisco Felicilda and Faraon overcame Liu Cheng-chieh of Chinese Taipei, 11-5.
It was Japan-based Gallego who delivered the most stirring win among the Filipino bets as he stunned former champion Ralf Souquet of Germany, 11-10, while Biado, still in search of his first world title, breezed past Meiszko Fortunski of Poland, 11-6.
Starting with 11 players in the Round of 64, the PH contingent was now down to six with Orcollo and Corteza tumbling out.
A surprisingly sluggish Orcollo took an 8-11 loss to Naoyuki Oi of Japan, while Corteza was eliminated by Qatar’s former World 8-ball champion Waleed Majed, 6-11. Cedelf P. Tupas