World Pool 9-Ball champ Carlo Biado leads strong start for Filipino cue artists at Florida Open

August 7 ------ REIGNING two-time world 9-ball champ Carlo Biado got off to a winning start at the Florida Open at the Caribe Royale Resort in Orlando in Manila.

The Filipino cue artist opened his campaign with a 9-3 win against American Sam Henderson in the round 1 of stage 1. Hours later, Biado topped Dutch Quinten Pongers, 9-4, in round 2 to advance to the winner's qualification round 3. Biado was pitted against compatriot Roland Garcia early Thursday with the winner entering the last 64.

Garcia progressed to the winner's qualification with a thrilling 9-8 hill-hill win over Payne Mcbride in round 2. He started his campaign with a 9-0 triumph over American Daniel Sanchez. Another top Filipino bet, Johann Chua, barged to the winner's qualification after scoring a pair of wins to open his campaign. Chua blanked American Rick Miller, 9-0, and dominated Kristian Dimitrov, 9-2, in the tournament that offers a prize money of $40,000 or more than P2.2 million for the champion.

Chua was to face Norwegian Emil Gangflot also early Thursday in Manila. The other Pinoy pool players who reached the winners qualification are Patric Gonzales, Jeffrey Roda, Bernie Regalario, Marvin Asis and Michael Baoanan. Gonzales was pitted against Vietnamese Duong Quoc Hoang; Roda against Greek Dimitris Loukatos; Regalario against Canadian John Morra; and Baoanan against Japanese Naoyuki Oi. Asis’ opponent in the winner's qualification was still being determined as of posting time.

Source: manilatimes.net