Anton Raga outplayed his more illustrious, yet sluggish countryman Johann Chua, 11-6, in their round of 32 match to move along with a strong group of Filipino players advancing to the last 16 of the World Pool Nine Ball Championship at the Green Halls in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Thursday night (early Friday morning in Manila).
Raga, the pride of Cebu, charged strong and won the last five racks as he took advantage of every missed opportunity from Chua, a former all-Japan champion, who simply couldn’t get his game going.
Chua’s last missed shot at the corner pocket when he bungled sinking the No.2 ball, allowed Raga to regain composure and broke the last deadlock at 6-all. From there on, Raga won the next four racks.
Despite Chua’s elimination, there’s a solid group of Pinoy players marching into the last 16.
More Pinoys march to last 16
Jeffrey Ignacio, last year’s quarterfinalist, knocked out Aloyssius Yapp of Sigapore while ‘Dodong Diamond’ James Aranas ran roughshod over Mickey Krause, 11-4.
Also advancing to the last 16 was Jeffrey Roda, who showed nerves of steel in outlasting his more heralded counterpart in Jayson Shaw of Scotland, 11-9. The game would have gone to a hill-hill encounter but Shaw, a former champion of the World Pool Association Blackball event, squandered a wide-open corner shot at the No.5, allowing the Filipino to clean up.
The Filipinos’ giant-slaying ways continued as Patric Gonzales stunned last year’s runner-up and former World Ten Ball champion Eklent Kaci of Albania, 11-6.
Two-time world champion Carlo Biado repulsed the challenge of a young Wiktor Zeilinski, the youngest player to win a championship in the Euro Tour, after the former World Nine Ball and World 10-Ball titlist survived the challenge of his 24-year-old foe, 11-8.
But these Pinoy players are expected to be trimmed down ahead of the quarterfinals as some of them are going to face each other with Biado and Ignacio and Gonzales and Bernie Bernie Regalario finding themselves in a head-on collision in the last 16 matches for a final eight berths.
Other Pinoys competing in the last 16 include Roda taking on Duong Guoc Hoang of Vietnan, Ragha meeting world No.2 Ameer Ali of Iraq, Aranas squaring off with the highly-fancied Ko Ping Chung of Chinese Taipei.
