Biado, 2 others gain World 9-ball Last 64

MANILA, Philippines — Carlo Biado, Jeffrey Ignacio and Jeffrey de Luna stormed to their second straight victories in group play to move into the Last 64 of the 2017 World 9-Ball Championship at Al Arabi SC in Doha, Qatar Sunday night.

World Games titlist Biado nipped South African Richard Halliday, 9-4, stringing five straight racks to break away from a stalemate through eight frames and get his expected place in the knockout stages.

Like Biado, de Luna and Ignacio picked up racks after racks towards the finish to seal the deal against their respective foes and go through.

De Luna shut out Qatari Muzammil Hussain from the eighth set onwards for a 9-3 rout while Ignacio blanked Chinese Dang Jinhu starting from the 13th en route to a 9-6 verdict.

The rest of the Pinoy contingents were stalled by losses in their second matches.

Francisco Felicilda and Johann Chua suffered identical 8-9 setbacks to Taiwanese world No. 1 Chang Jung Lin and Venezuelan Jalal Al Sarisi, respectively, to find themselves in the one-loss side of the double-elimination format group stage.

Warren Kiamco and Roland Garcia got themselves in a similar situation after bowing to Russian Konstantin Stepanov, 7-9, and Austrian Maximillian Lechner, 5-9, respectively.

Israel Rota, who dropped his opening assignment, kept his bid alive with a 9-1 demolition of South African Jeremiah Naidoo in the losers’ side.