Orcollo, Chua stay unbeaten

CEBU, Philippines —  World-rated Filipino shotmakers Dennis “Robocop” Orcollo and Johann Chua remained unscathed after four starts but four of their countrymen including Cebu’s Warren Kiamco crashed out of the 2021 US Open 9-Ball Championship at Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

The Surigao City-native Orcollo thrashed former champion Corey Deuel of the United States, 11-1, before whipping Alex Kazakis of Greece, 11-3, while Chua, who hails from Bacolod City, also went 4-0 with back-to-back triumphs over American Christopher Lawson, 11-5, and Lithuania’s Pijus Labutis, 11-6.

Orcollo, a one-time Asian Games and five-time Southeast Asian (SEA) Games gold medalist, and Chua, who finished third in last week’s World 10-Ball Championship in Las Vegas, will face next Oliver Szolnoki of Hungary and Mieszko Fortunski of Poland, respectively, for a spot in the Final 16.

Carlo Biado, on the other hand, annihilated former world champion Mika Immonen of Finland, 11-1, but lost to David Alcaide Bermudez of Spain, 5-11. He could still make it though to the next stage of the $300,000 tournament if he gets past Daniel Schneider of Switzerland in the loser’s bracket.

The same goes for the other Philippine bets in Roland Garcia and Jeffrey de Luna.

Garcia fell prey to Japan’s Naoyuki Oi, 8-11, while De Luna lost via a 10-11 cliffhanger to American Rodrigo Geronimo.

They, however, stayed in the hunt for the $50,000 (P2.5 million) grand prize. Garcia bounced back with consecutive victories over Waleed Majid, 11-8, and Mateusz Sniegocki of Poland, 11-5, while De Luna stayed alive after crushing David Daya, 11-3, and Fil-Canadian Alex Pagulayan, 11-0.

Up next for Garcia is Niels Feijen of the Netherlands, while De Luna will go up against Ralf Soquet of Germany.

Unfortunately, it was a completely different story for Kiamco, who kissed his championship bid goodbye together with his compatriots Jeffrey Ignacio, Roberto Gomez, and James Aranas.

After losing to Spain’s Francisco Sanchez Ruiz, 6-11, Kiamco subdued Joseph Korsiak, 11-2, but was eventually eliminated by Skylar Woodward, 9-11.

Ignacio prevailed over Raymond Linares, 11-8, after being beaten by Chang-Jung Lin of Chinese-Taipei, 8-11, but was sent to the exit door by Canadian John Morra, 2-11.

Gomez also bowed out after suffering consecutive setbacks at the hands of Russian Fedor Gorst, 6-11, and Taiwanese Wu Kin Lin, 10-11.

The same happened to Aranas, who was kicked out of the six-day tilt by Pijus Labutis of Lithuania, 9-11, and Jonas Souto Comino of Spain via a 10-11 nail-biter.