LEE Van Corteza and Johann Chua posted contrasting wins over separate foes Monday night while two other Filipinos also triumphed in the opening round of the World Pool Championships at the Green Halls in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Corteza, the Las Vegas 10-ball Open champ last February, routed Saudi Arabia’s Nawaf Sharmardal 9-1 while Chua escaped with a 9-8 decision over Eritrean Hamzaa Ali in the $1 million tournament offering a top prize of $250,000 (around P14.691 million).
With the score tied at 8-all, Chua’s hopes seemed gone as all that Ali needed was to pocket the 9-ball in the right corner pocket, which rimmed out. But when it was the Pinoy player’s turn at the table, he also muffed the match-sealing shot, setting up the Eritrean for another shot on the same right corner pocket.
Much to Chua’s relief anew, Ali also bungled the shot, enabling the former to finally sink the 9-ball on the opposite corner pocket, rolling his eyes while covering his face with his right hand at the close call.
Kyle Amoroto dumped hometown bet Khalid Alghamdi 9-5 and Roland Garcia vanquished American Nicholas de Leon 9-7 as the two Filipinos advanced in the winner’s bracket.
Former World Games and US pool champ Carlo Biado was not as fortunate, being relegated to the loser’s bracket after losing 5-9 to Dutchman Marco Teutsher, the same fate suffered by Jeffrey Roda, who took a 4-9 setback at the hands of 2017 US Pool champ Jayson Shaw of Scotland.
