By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Jeff De Luna and Roberto Gomez posted hard-fought victories to arrange a quarterfinal showdown in the 2025 Las Vegas 10-Ball Open at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Nevada.
De Luna, a silver medalist in the 2006 Doha Asian Games, walloped Radoslaw Babica of Poland, 4-1, 4-2, 4-3, in a game that took the Filipino three hours and 46 minutes to complete.
Gomez, on the other hand, needed four hours to finish off Dimitris Loukatos of Greece, 2-4, 4-1, 4-1, 4-3.
De Luna and Gomez are expected to go all-out in their quarterfinals showdown as they are willing to put their friendship in the backseat for the meantime in the $125,000 tournament.
Other quarterfinalists pit Greece’s Alex Kazakis and Poland’s Wojciech Szewczyk, Germany’s Joshua Filler against Netherlands’ Marco Teutscher, and Germany’s Stefan Kasper over Estonia’s Denis Grabe.
Meanwhile, women’s action fires off Wednesday, Feb. 26 (Philippine time) with Chezka Centeno and Rubilen Amit looking pretty confident of their title aspirations.
Centeno, the 2023 world women’s 10-ball champion, launches her title-retention bod against Nicolle Cuellar of the United States, while Amit, a two-time world 10-ball winner, also faces an American in Ada Lio.
Last year, Centeno prevailed over former world champion Chen Siming for the crown.
