FILIPINO cue artists Jeffrey Roda and Anton Raga vanquished their respective rivals in contrasting fashion late Monday night at the opening of the World Pool Championship at the Green Halls in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
A losing finalist to Spain’s David Alcaide in the 2023 European Pool Championship, Raga whipped hometown bet Fahad Aldhayan 9-3 while Roda, the 2024 Chinese-Taipei Open champion, nipped Englishman Fraser Patrick 9-8 in the lucrative meet offering a top prize of P250,000 (around P14.259 million)
Three of their compatriots, however, lost in the first stage of the double-round eliminations, with Marlon Cañeda losing to Italy’s Fraser Patrick 2-9; Mark Kalagayan to Taiwan’s Chan Yu-lung 6-9; and Rogelio Sotero to Estonia’s Dennis Grabe 5-9.
Raga was set to play Syria’s Mohammed Soufi, 2023 World Pool runner-up, while Roda was up against Turkey’s Mustafa Alnar in the second stage of the winner’s bracket.
Among the prominent cue aces who were scheduled to play late yesterday were 2023 World Cup of Pool doubles champions Carlo Biado, the champion of the tournament’s 2017 edition held in Doha, Qatar, and Johann Chua.
“I’m ready—more than prepared than I’ve ever been for the World Pool championship,” said Chua at the press conference the other day that ushered in the competition among the top 128 players from 40 countries in the world.
“Last year was a blessing to reach the semifinals, and it started an amazing journey. I went on to win the Hanoi Open and Reyes Cup with Team Asia,” recalled the pool player, who was set to play Saudi Mohamed Al-Bhalki in his race-to-9 first match.
Biado, a three-time Southeast Asian Games medalist, was also up against another against Dutchman, Jan Van Lierop while veteran Lee Van Corteza was to face another Saudi in Al Waleed Al-Mudayan.
Among the PH bets facing tough first-round assignments were Rolando Garcio, who was set to play 2014 world champion Niels “The Terminator) Feijen of the Netherlands, while Marvin Asias drew Alcaide as his opening match rival.
