Orcollo, Biado advance to all-Asian semifinals

CEBU, Philippines —  Filipino cue masters Dennis “Robocop” Orcollo and Carlo Biado axed their respective rivals to barge into the all-Asian semifinals of the 2021 US Open 9-Ball Championship on Friday night (Saturday morning, Phl time) at the Diamond Arena of Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Orcollo, the 2010 World Pool Masters champion and five-time Southeast Asian (SEA) Games gold medalist, bumped off Mario He of Hungary, 11-6, to breeze through the quarterfinals undefeated in six matches.

The Bislig, Surigao del Sur-native Orcollo, who minted gold medal for the Philippines at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, then made it 7-0 after kicking out Max Lechner of Austria, 11-7, to enter the Final Four.

The 37-year-old Biado, on the other hand, had to endure a double thriller against David Alcaide Bermudez of Spain and his countryman Johann Chua before keeping his title hopes alive.

Biado, gold medalist at the 2017 World Games in Wroclaw, Poland, escaped past Bermudez and Chua both via an 11-10 cliffhanger to reach the penultimate stage of the six-day tilt that offers a total of $300,000 in prize fund.

For making it to the semis scheduled Saturday night (Sunday morning, Phl time), Orcollo and Biado ensured themselves of at least $12,000 (P600,000) each.

Orcollo will face next Aloysius Yapp of Singapore, while Biado will go up against Naoyuki Oi of Japan. The winners will be guaranteed $25,000 and a shot at the whopping $50,000 (P2.5 million) champion’s purse.

The 42-year-old Orcollo came close to winning the prestigious tournament twice in 2012 and 2014 but lost to American Shane Van Boening in both occasions.

The first and only Filipino to have ruled the tough US Open 9-Ball event was Efren “Bata” Reyes back in 1994.