Three Filipino cue artists remain in the hunt for a spot in the Final Four of the World Pool Championship after emerging victorious in their Round of 16 matches on Friday, July 25, at the Green Halls in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Carlo Biado, the 2017 World Nine-Ball Champion, held off a gritty comeback by compatriot Jeffrey Ignacio to secure a narrow 11-9 win.
Biado looked in control early, building a 6-3 lead and later maintaining an 8-6 advantage.
But Ignacio, who previously stunned world no. 2 Aloysius Yapp of Singapore in the Round of 32, stormed back to take a 9-8 lead by winning three straight racks.
The 41-year-old Biado, however, showed his championship mettle by regaining composure and sweeping the final three racks to close out the match.
Biado, who also won the World Ten-Ball Championship last year, now sets up a blockbuster quarterfinal clash with 2023 US Open champion Ko Ping-Chung of Chinese Taipei.
Ko eliminated the Philippines’ James Aranas, 11-7, earlier in the day.
Joining Biado in the quarterfinals is Jefrey Roda, the reigning Chinese Taipei Open champion.
Roda edged Vietnam’s top cueist Duong Quốc Hoàng in a nail-biting hill-hill showdown, 11-10.
Trailing 9-10, Roda dug deep to win the last two racks and book a spot in the Last 8, where he faces a daunting challenge against world no. 1 Fedor Gorst.
Gorst, a Russian-born prodigy who now represents the United States after acquiring American citizenship, is the defending champion of the tournament and also lifted the trophy in 2019.
The third Filipino in the quarterfinals is rising star Bernie Regalario, who turned back fellow Filipino Patric Gonzales, 11-9.
The 20-year-old Regalario now faces an even tougher task against current world no. 3 Francisco Sanchez Ruiz of Spain, a former World Nine-Ball and World Eight-Ball champion.
The Philippines was close to having a representative in each of the four quarterfinal pairings, but 2023 European Open Pool Championship runner-up Anton Raga bowed out after falling to Iraq’s Ameer Ali, 6-11.
