By REYNALD MAGALLON
Team Asia continued to dominate in the ongoing inaugural Reyes Cup as Carlo Biado and Singaporean partner Alloysius Yap scored a come-from-behind victory over the duo of Team Europe’s Jayson Shaw and Eklent Kaci on Thursday, Oct. 17 at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
Hardly rattled by a 2-3 deficit, both the protagonists of 2021 US Open Finals, Biado and Yapp displayed poise and took care of the last three racks to claim a 5-3 win and further pad the lead for Team Asia over Team Europe, 9-3, in the Race to 11 series.
Biado tied the contest with a runout on the sixth rack before pouncing on the mistake of Kaci who missed his shot on the 2-ball. The Filipino pool master then ran into a slight trouble at the four-ball but coolly executed a kick to pocket it and eventually put his side on the hill.
A brief safety battle ensued in the next rack to which the Asians prevailed after taking advantage on Shaw miss on 1-ball.
It was an entirely different story earlier in the day when Team Asia, composed of recently crowned Hanoi Open winner Johann Chua, Ko Pin Yi of Chinese Taipei, and Duong Quoc Hoang of Vietnam, dominated Team Europe, 5-1 in the team play.
Team Europe visibly struggled with its strokes at the start of Day 3 highlighted by a costly miss on the 9-ball from Mickey Krause allowing Team Asia to take a commanding 3-0 lead.
Ko further padded the lead putting Team Asia on the hill with a runout on the next rack before Kaci tried to restore some sense of order for Team Europe, clearing the table to finally get his team in the board.
Team Asia, however, would not be denied as Yapp secured the victory for his crew, capping the contest with neat runout.
Team Europe, comprised of three of the world’s top five pool players, somehow salvaged a point on the third day after Shaw and Francisco Sanchez Ruiz triumphed over the Ko-Chua tandem, 5-3, in doubles play.
Still, it has been all Team Asia through the first three days of the tournament named after Filipino pool great Efren ‘Bata’ Reyes.
The Asians opened the tournament with 3-2 lead at the end of the first day before a 4-0 sweep on the second day catapulted the team to a commanding 7-2 lead.
Filipino pool great Django Bustamante also saw action and amazed the crowd with a 4-2 win over Jeremy Jones in an exhibition match.
