NEWLY-CROWNED World 9-ball champion Carlo Biado swept his opening matches yesterday (Tuesday in the US), marking another impressive display by Filipino cue artists at the start of the Florida Open Pool Championship at the Caribe Royal Resort in Orlando, Florida.
Returning to action after a brief respite back home, Biado, now ranked world No. 2, hardly skipped a beat, topping American Sam Henderson 9-3 in his first match and then disposing of Dutchman Quinten Rogers 9-4 in the tournament offering a top prize of $40,000 (around P2.3 million).
Keeping pace was compatriot and world No. 4 Johann Chua, who crushed American Rick Miller 9-0 then defeated Florida-based Kristian Dimitrov in the competition organized by British promoter Matchroom.
In the field of 256 elite players from all over the world, among the other Pinoy pool players who won their first two matches were Patric Gonzales, Jeffrey Roda, Lee Van Corteza, Bernie Regalario, Roland Garcia, Marvin Asis and Michael Baoanan in the race-to-9 series.
But Biado and Garcia drew the misfortune of facing off early in the third round scheduled yesterday (early Thursday in Manila) in the meet serving as the prelude to the US Open Pool Championship set from Aug. 18 to 23 at the Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Chua was to meet Norwegian Emil Gangflot, Roda was up against Greek Emil Loukatos, Baoanan was to battle Japanese Naoyuki Oi and Gonzales was to tackle Vietnamese Duong Quoc Hoang in other matches featuring Filipino aces.
