Dennis Orcollo and Carlo Biado joined three others who made the knockout rounds through the loser’s bracket after winning their matches on Monday in the World 9-Ball Championship at the Al Arabi Sports Club in Doha, Qatar.
Orcollo beat Germany’s Christian Goetmann, 9-7, while Biado, ranked sixth in the world by the World Pool-Billiard Association, stormed back from 7-4 and 8-6 deficits to stun Japan’s Hayato Hijikata, 9-8.
Jeffrey Ignacio downed Canada’s Francis Crevier, 9-7; 2007 World 9-Ball runner-up Roberto Gomez dumped Spain’s Francisco Sanchez, 9-3; and Jeffrey de Luna crushed Naoyuki Oi, 9-1, to complete a slew of Filipinos that reached the round of 64.
Overall, nine Filipino cue artist are in the knockout stage, with Ramil Gallego, Lee Van Corteza, Johann Chua, Warren Kiamco, and 2004 winner Alex Pagulayan (representing Canada) already through after winning two matches in the preliminary round.
Biado had to endure the hardest route to make the round of 16 after falling behind against Hijikata.
But the gold medal winner of the 9-ball doubles with Kiamco in last year’s Singapore Southeast Asian Games regained his form while capitalizing on Hijikata’s late struggles to complete his comeback.
Three Filipinos, however, were given the boot after Antonio “Gaga” Gabica and Francisco Felicilda, both representing Qatar, and Rogelio Sotero lost their respective matches.
Gabica fell 9-7 to Great Britain’s Daryl Peach, Felicilda was beaten 9-3 by American Shane Van Boening, and Sotero suffered a 9-5 defeat to United Arab Emirates’ Salah Eldeen Al Remawi.