Philippines’ Johann Chua and James Aranas during World Cup of Pool 2023 at Pazo De Feiras E Congresos De Lugo on Sunday, July 02, 2023 in LUGO LUGO. –Taka Wu/Matchroom Multi Sport
Johann Chua and James Aranas avoided another collapse to edge out Austria’s Mario He and Albin Ouschan, 9-8, to reach the final of the World Cup of Pool on Sunday in Lugo, Spain.
Like in their hill-hill triumph over Chinese-Taipei in the quarterfinals the other day, Chua and Aranas capitalized on a decisive miscue by Austria after blowing a four-rack lead to move one win from giving the Philippines a record fourth World Cup title.
A scratch by He on the break allowed Chua and Aranas to run out the deciding rack to seal an unlikely place in the title match against either Germany’s Joshua Filler and Moritz Neuhausen or China’s Wu Jiaqing and Wang Can.
⭐️ The Philippines are five-time World Cup of Pool finalists!
🇵🇭 James Aranas and Johann Chua are the pride of an entire nation
💙❤️🤍💛#WorldCupofPool 🌎 pic.twitter.com/2cwu4APGsx
— Matchroom Pool (@MatchroomPool) July 2, 2023
Germany and China were playing the other semifinal as of posting time.
The final, a race-to-11 duel, will be played early Monday 1 a.m. Manila time where Chua and Aranas will try to win the top purse of $60,000 (P3.32 million).
But both almost ran out of luck after Austria rallied from being down 8-4 highlighted by He’s golden break and Chua’s miscue with three racks left and ahead by a single rack.
Prior to the near-meltdown, the Filipino cue artists took command after trailing 3-2 as Chua and Aranas displayed their form that made them reach this far in the competition.