Carlo Biado CONTRIBUTED FILE PHOTO/SEA GAMES MEDIA POOL
A Filipino is sure to make the quarterfinals of the 2017 World 9-Ball Championship.
That’s because compatriots Carlo Biado and Jeffrey Ignacio have been paired in the round of 16 at Al Arabi Sports Club in Doha, Qatar, Wednesday.
Biado, the reigning World Games 9-ball champion, subdued Poland’s Tomasz Kaplan, 11-8; while Ignacio ousted countryman Francisco Felicilda, 11-9, to remain in contention.
A second Filipino may yet make it to the quarterfinals as Roland Garcia is pitted against Taiwanese Ko Pin Yi in another round of 16 tussle.
Garcia, once under the tutelage of the great Efren “Bata” Reyes, trounced the Netherlands’ Niels Feijen, 11-7, in the round of 32.
Another Filipino, Jeffrey de Luna, bowed out following an 11-9 beating from Myanmar’s Maung Maung.
The winner between Biado and Ignacio advances to the round of 8 while the loser exits the tournament previously won by Reyes in 1999, Ronato Alcano in 2006 and Francisco “Django” Bustamante in 2010.
Also in the round of 16 are German Thorsten Hohmann, a two-time World 9-ball champion, Taiwanese Hsieh Chia Chen, defending champion Albin Ouschan of Austria, Taiwanese Wu Kun Lin and Ko Ping Chung, Venezuelan-Jordanian Jalal Yousef, Chinese Dang Jinhu and Liu Haitao, German Joshua Filler, Albanian Klenti Kaci and Canadian John Morra.
Ouschan is pitted against Wu; Hohmann against Hsieh; Liu against Ko Ping Chung; Yousef against Dang; Maung Maung against Filler; and Kaci against Morra. —ROY LUARCA