RISING Pinoy cue artist Jeffrey Roda held off American Lucas Fracasso-Verner yesterday (Tuesday night in the US) 9-6 to advance to the last 64 of the US Open Pool Championship at Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Roda, 25, who ruled the 3rd Universal Chinese-Taipei Open after upsetting celebrated hometown favorite Ko Pin-yi 13-11 in the final for his first World 9-ball Tour Title in 2024, now awaits the rest of the field to complete their matches to determine his next foe in the lucrative meet offering a top prize of $100,000 (around P5.71 million).
Compatriots Michael Baoanan, Lee Van Corteza, and Baseth Mocaibat were relegated to the losers’ bracket after falling to separate rivals in other matches in the heritage-rich tournament that Filipinos have surprisingly won only twice.
The legendary Efren “Bata” Reyes was the first to do it in 1994, outclassing American Nick Varner 9-6 in the championship match held at the Holiday Inn in Chesapeake, Virginia.
Baoanan proved to be no match for American world No. 1 Fedor Gorst, who cruised to a 9-4 victory and joined Roda in the second stage of the competition, a knockout round until the finale.
A four-time Southeast Asian Games gold medalist, Corteza lost to former world 10-ball champion Wojciech Szewczuk of Poland 5-9 while Mocaibat dropped a close 8-9 decision to Hong Kong-born and former UK Open champ Robbie Capito.
In other matches, reigning world 9-ball king Carlos Biado clipped German Boris Ivanovski 9-6; Robert Gomez topped Turkish Mustafa Alnar and Bernie Regalario topped American Donny Mills to also reach the third round.
World No. 4 Johann Chua resumed his campaign late yesterday and was set to meet countryman Roland Garcia for a spot in the knockout phase. Marvin Asis was to take on world No. 3 Singaporean Aloysius Yapp and Gomez veteran German Joshua Filler.
Gunning for his second US Open crown that he won in 2021 at the same site, Biado, ranked world No. 2, was scheduled to meet Vietnam’s Luona Duc Thien in other matches featuring Filipinos.
