By Jonas Terrado
Carlo Biado, Johann Chua and Jeffrey Ignacio crashed out of the World 9-Ball Championship after suffering round-of-32 defeats Monday at the Al-Arabi Sports Club in Doha, Qatar.
Philippines’ Carlo Biado, left, and Johann Chua (Contributed photo)
Biado absorbed an 11-10 defeat to American Billy Thorpe in a hill-hill affair, Chua fell 11-6 to Japan’s Naoyuki Oi and Ignacio lost 11-9 to Taiwan’s Ko Pin Yi.
Their exits left no Philippine representatives in the round-of-16 of the annual event for the first time since 2016.
The three had hoped to rebound from their struggles in the 30th Southeast Asian Games that saw them settling for bronze medals in the men’s 10-ball doubles.
While Chua and Ignacio gained early berths in the knockout stages, Biado had to make it the hard way after absorbing a 9-3 loss to Chile’s Enrique Rojas in the opener.
Biado defeated Jordan’s Hassan Shajada 9-4 in the loser’s bracket before surviving Qatar’s Bashar Abdulmajeed 11-10.
Meanwhile, Fil-Canadian Alex Pagulayan was eliminated in the quarterfinals by China’s Liu Haitao 11-8.
Pagulayan, who represents Canada, reached the last eight after a 11-9 win over Thorpe.
Source: Manila Bulletin
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