Pagulayan, Biado sustain PH campaign in Ultimate 10-Ball
Former world champion Alex Pagulayan and unheralded Carlo Biado kept the Philippine flag flying in the Ultimate 10-Ball Championships as five other Filipino bets got booted out on Wednesday night at the Harrah’s Resort in Tunica, Mississippi.
Unfortunately, only one Filipino will be left standing, as Pagulayan and Biado will be facing each other in a do-or-die match in the losers’ bracket.
Pagulayan defeated Albin Ouschan of Austria in the fourth round (10-7) and Niels Fiejen of the Netherlands in the fifth (10-9) but fell short in the sixth round at the hands of Chinese Wang Can (4-10) that sent him to the losers’ side.
Biado, for his part, bowed to American Shane Van Boening in the fourth round and was also relegated to the losers’ column. He scored four straight victories in the losers’ side over Americans Oscar Domin-guez (10-1) and Mike De-chaine (10-8), and Germans Ralf Souquet (10-2) and Thorsten Hohmann (10-8) to arrange a knockout match with Pagulayan.
Efren Reyes (over Karl Boyes of Great Britain, 5-10), Francisco Bustamante (over Johnny Archer of US, 9-10), Dennis Orcollo (over Jeremy Sossei of US, 8-10), Warren Kiamco (over Bustamante, 5-10) and Lee Van Corteza (over Chris Bartram of US, 8-10), however, succumbed in their respective games in the losers’ side.
The tournament employs a double-elimination format.
Emil C. Noguera