Filipino Carlo Biado defeated Singaporean Aloysius Yapp, 13-8, in the finals to win the US Open 9-Ball Pool Championship at Harrah’s Resort, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA early Sunday morning.
Biado’s never say die attitude paid off when down to 3-8, he never looked back in this 9 ball winner’s break format, winning 10 straight racks to bring home the P1.5 million champion’s purse.
Earlier, Biado downed Japanese Naoyuki Oi of Japan, 11-9, in the semis while Yapp defeated Filipino Dennis Orcollo, 11-6.
“This is one of the toughest tournament i’ll ever played. Because in the 2017 WPA World 9 ball Championship in Doha, Qatar is no pressure due to an all Filipino finals,” said Biado on Sunday in an interview with Ms. Judith Caringal of Radyo Pilipinas 2.
The native of La Union became the first Filipino in 27 seven years to win the crown. Efren Reyes won the championship back in 1994.
However, Reyes failed to defend his title in the following years. He lost in the finals to Reed Pierce (1995), Rodney Morris (1996) and Earl Strickland (1997) of the United States, respectively.
The U.S. Open 9-Ball Championships is an annual professional men’s nine-ball pool tournament that began in its current form in 1976.
Filipino pool legend Jose “Amang” Parica almost duplicated Reyes feat but fell short.
Parica, acknowledged as the leader of the Filipino invasion to the US in the mid-’80s lost to Jeremy Jones of the USA in 2003 and Alex “The Lion” Pagulayan of Canada in 2005.
Rodolfo “Boy Samson” Luat yielded to John Schmidt of the USA in 2006, Ronato Alcano was beaten by Shane Van Boening of the USA in 2007 and Mika Immonen of Finland in 2008.
Shane Van Boening of the USA crushed Dennis Orcollo in 2012, Lee Vann Corteza in 2013 and Dennis Orcollo in 2014.*
