WORLD No. 4 Johann Chua swept his two opening matches to lead four other Filipino cue players to the third round yesterday (Monday in the US) of the US Open Pool Championship at the Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Chua first dumped American Floro Ritarita 9-5, then subdued Dutchman Quinten Pongers 9-7 in an auspicious start to the heritage-rich competition organized by British promoter Matchroom, offering a record top prize of $100,000 (roughly P5.73 million).
Joining him in the third round of the winner’s bracket were compatriots Michael Baoanan, Jeffrey Roda and Baseth Mocaibat.
A member of the Manila MSW Mavericks playing in the Sharks Billiards Association league, Mocaibat caused the biggest ripple among the Pinoy pool bets by toppling former German world No. 9 and 8-ball king Ralf Souquet 9-5 in his second match after opening with a 9-3 win over China’s To Lian Han.
Baonanan also reached the third round after downing American Rajmond Pali and Italian Francesco Candela 9-3 while countryman Jeffrey Roda routed Vietnamese Nguyen Hoang Tuan 9-3 and American Paul Song 9-1.
Veteran Lee Van Corteza also advanced, topping Russian Kristian Dimitrov 9-4
and Greek Rikku Romppanen 9-5.
New world 9-ball champion Carlio Biado whipped Canadian Jason Munro 9-1 in his first match and was to play German Boris Ivanovski in the next stage of the meet gathering the top 296 players in the world.
