UNHERALDED Anthony Raga sustained his surprising run in the European Open Pool Championship last Saturday night (Saturday afternoon in Europe), subduing fancied Wojciech Szewczyk of Poland 10-7 to advance to the semifinals at the Hotel Esperanto in Fulda, Germany.
With big guns Johann Chua and James Aranas fading in the early rounds, Raga was left to carry country’s cudgels in the blue-ribbon competition and continued to do it with aplomb, polishing off the 2022 world 10-ball champion.
In an early nip-and-tuck affair, Raga and Szewczyk battled through three deadlocks at 3-3, 5-5 and 7-7, with the Pinoy cue artist finally gaining the upperhand by running out the next three racks behind his solid and precise play, keeping his title hopes in his tournament debut very much alive.
Among his earlier victims were reigning Taiwanese Asian 9-ball champion Ko Pin-yi, whom he trounced 10-0 in the round-of-32 last Friday, after which he topped Canadian veteran John Morra 10-4 hours later in the next round.
Raga’s semifinal foe will be just as challenging, hometown favorite Joshua Filler, the reigning World Games men’s 9-ball champion, who survived a nerve-wracking 10-9 decision over Russian Fider Gorst in the other quarterfinals encounter.
Down 8-9, Filler banked on Gorst’s blunder in the 18th rack when he failed to sink the 9-ball on the left corner pocket, the ball rattling out. The German easily sank to ball to deadlock the count at 9-all.
After the close call and a successful break in the 19th frame, Filler easily cleared the table to book his ticket to the semis, much to the relief and delight of the German gallery.
The semifinal battle between Raga and Filler, a race-to-11 affair, was scheduled to start at 12 p.m. (6 p.m. in Manila) yesterday, with the winner advancing to the race-to-13 championship match at 6 p.m. (12 a.m. Monday in Manila).
The other semis at 1:30 p.m. (7:30 p.m. Manila time) pits American ace Shane Van Boening against Spain’s David Alcaide, who also both survived pulsating quarterfinal matches.
Van Boening dodged the bullet against upset-conscious Austrian Mario He 10-9 while Alcaide nipped illustrious compatriot Francisco Sanchez Ruiz by the same score.
