Team Asia in control

MANILA, Philippines — Filipino Carlo Biado gave Team Europe a grim reminder of how powerful Team Asia is Thursday night when he teamed up with Singaporean Aloysius Yapp in bringing down Eklent Kaci and Jason Shaw, 5-3, that gave the former a 9-3 lead in the inaugural Asia Cup at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

It was one of the two matches won by the host region as its team took the first match, 5-1, before the Europeans snatched the second courtesy of Shaw and Francisco Sanchez Ruiz’s 5-3 win over Ko Pin Yi of Taiwan and Filipino Johann Chua.

With the Asians on the cusp of completing their annihilation of the Europeans early with still a day left on the event’s schedule, organizers made the business decision of rescheduling the rest of the matches on the final day.

In lieu of the rescheduled matches was the exhibition duel between Filipino legend Francisco “Django” Bustamante and American icon Jeremy Jones that resulted in an entertaining 4-2 win by the former.