Garcia gains World 9-ball quarters, upends Taiwanese

MANILA, Philippines — Roland Garcia continued his giant-killing ways and toppled another former world champion yesterday to join Carlo Biado in the quarterfinals of the 2017 World 9-ball Championship at Al Arabi SC in Doha, Qatar.

A day after upending 2014 winner Neils Feijen of the Netherlands, 11-7, Garcia beat 2015 titlist Ko Pin Yi of Chinese Taipei, 11-8, to gain a spot in the Last 8 of the annual tournament.

Garcia built a 5-2 cushion against Ko and though the Taiwanese bounced back and closed in at 8-9, the Filipino kept his poise and took the next two racks to seal the upset.

Biado, the reigning World Games kingpin, strung up four straight racks to break away from a 7-7 stalemate with compatriot Jeffrey Ignacio and post an 11-7 victory.

The world No. 7 Biado guns for a semis seat against the winner of the still-to-be-played Last-16 match between Chinese Liu Haitao and Taiwanese Chung Ko Ping while Garcia seeks the same against Venezuela’s Jalal Al Sarisi, who advanced via an 11-7 verdict over Chinese Dang Jinhu.

Biado and Garcia are the last men standing among eight Pinoy bets in the $200,000 tourney.

Aside from Round-of-16 qualifier Ignacio, Warren Kiamco, Franciso Felicilda, Jeffrey de Luna, Israel Rota and Johann Chua had also taken the exits.

Kiamco surrendered an 8-11 setback to Taiwanese Lin Wu Kun while De Luna fell to an ambush from rising Burmese Maung Maung, 9-11, and Felicilda yielded to Ignacio, 9-11, all in the Last-32.

Rota bowed out earlier in the Last-64, losing to Chinese Liu Haitao,  3-11, while Chua failed to get past the double-elimination format group stage.