CEBU, Philippines — Coming off a runner-up finish in this year’s China Open, the Talisay City-native Raga enjoyed a first-round bye before coming up with a lopsided 9-1 win over Allan Cortez.
Then, the 21-year-old Raga endured his biggest scare by pulling off a 9-8 cliffhanger over John Albert Refulle in the winners’ qualification round.
Regaining his composure, Raga downed PutingRamber, 11-9, and Michael Baoanan, 11-6, to set up a quarterfinal showdown with Cebuano billiards great Warren Kiamco, who advanced after booting out 2017 World Pool champion Carlo Biado, 11-7.
Raga summoned all the skills and tricks he could master to handily beat Kiamco, 11-4. He followed it up with another impressive 11-4 drubbing of Sean Mark Malayan to barge into the finals against Feliciano, who made it to the championship after escaping past Demosthenes Pulpul, 11-10, in the other semifinal match.
In the finals, Laguna’s Feliciano raced to a 2-0 start but Raga swept the next four racks to gain a 4-2 lead.
Feliciano, however, battled back with savvy to forge a 7-7 deadlock.
Feliciano had a chance to snatch the lead two times in a row but couldn’t complete the game on his side following a scratch.
After Raga nailed his 10th point, there was no more turning back for Cebu’s pride on the way to pocket the P300,000 champion’s purse of the five-day tilt backed up by Senator Manny Pacquiao and Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella.
Feliciano though still has something to be happy about as he received P200,000 for his efforts.