Filipino cue artist Carlo Biado in the Abu Dhabi Open. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/NIECKY BIADO
MANILA, Philippines—Carlo Biado and five other Filipino cue artists advanced to the knockout stage following perfect runs in the preliminaries of the Abu Dhabi 9-Ball Championship Wednesday at Power Break Billiard Hall.
The reigning US Open Pool champion held off fellow Filipino Arnel Bautista, 9-7, in his final match of the preliminaries to move closer to the AED 20,000 (roughly P273,000) title prize.
Biado, who won the 2017 World 9-Ball title, raced to a 5-0 lead but Bautista relied back to get to as close as two racks down, 8-6, but couldn’t sustain his momentum in the final moments of the match.
“I was a bit lucky because my touch didn’t fail me until the last shot,” said Biado following his match against Bautista, who now lives in Dubai.
Also moving to the knockout round are Roland Garcia, Arman Cagol, Jhay Miranda, Israel Rota and Harry Vergara.
Garcia dominated Jordan’s Aikhouri Ghaith, 9-1, while Miranda survived Dominic Reyes, 9-7.
Cagol defeated Jayson Nuguid, 9-5, in their match while Rota and Vergara had 9-6 wins over Aivhan Maluto and Oliver Medenilla, respectively.
Lebanon’s Khalid Najib Fattoh eliminated Egypt’s Mammoud Fadi, 9-4, while Jordan’s Ahmad Jallad took down UAE’s Abdullah Alameri, 9-4.