Biado rules Taipei open
MANILA, Philippines — Flexing his world champion muscles, Carlo Biado ruled the 2nd Chinese Taipei Open 9-Ball Pool Championship before an animated crowd at the cavernous Hulk Billiards Hall in Taipei City Friday night.
The former World Games gold medalist and World 9-Ball king wasted no time in disposing of Bernie Regalario, 13-7, in the All-Filipino finale and adding another hardware to his collection while pocketing $10,000 (P550,000).
It also asserted the country’s supremacy over the sport where it has produced a bevy of world champions including the legend of all legends – Efren “Bata” Reyes.
But it took the 40-year-old Southeast Asian Games titan an early defeat at the hands of local bet Ching Feng Wang, 9-4, to crawl out from the losers’ bracket and straight to the top of this 96-strong field.
That stinging, near-catastrophic setback somehow woke the dragon in Biado, who then unleashed a decisive juggernaut that saw him destroying everyone that stood on his path –Taiwan’s Shun Yang Kao, 8-1, Singapore’s Toh Lian Han, 8-1, and countryman Jefrey Roda, 8-2 – in advancing to the playoff round.
There, he carried the momentum of his rampage as he smashed Vietnam’s Bui Truong An and Taiwan’s Yun Cheng Liu with a pair of 10-0 wins, edged No. 1 Francisco Sanchez Ruiz of Spain, 10-5, the Philippines’ Michael Feliciano, 10-8, and Taiwan’s Chang Yu Lung, 11-9, to advance to the finals.
Regalario, who hurdled Singapore’s Aloysius Yapp, 11-10, in the semis, tried to put up a brave front but just drowned amid the Biado landslide and settled for a $5,000 (P270,000) purse.
