World 10-Ball elims under way at Star Billiards

MANILA, Philippines - The World 10-Ball Championship qualifying round, featuring 128 players from over 40 countries, starts today at the Star Billiards Center in Quezon City.

Participants include over 100 foreign players, including 20 Japanese, 14 Indonesians, 11 Chinese, eight Taiwanese, seven from Brunei, three from France and two from Great Britain.

Another 27 entrants are Filipinos, including noted players Ramil Gallego, Antonio Lining, Roberto Gomez and Mario Tolentino.

The $262,000 tournament will be played over five days in the new pool-dedicated arena of the Star Center. Two qualifiers will be played and completed daily, with the winner of each awarded a spot in the WTBC main draw.

The public is invited to watch the qualifiers for free. The host of the event is Billiards and Snooker Congress of the Philippines president Sebastian Chua.

Guest of honor at the opening ceremony tomorrow is Rep. Bong-bong Marcos, who will perform the ceremonial break at 10 a.m.

Among the notable players in the qualifying stage are Chang Pei-Wei of Chinese-Taipei, Rudy Susanto of Indonesia, Kenji Taguchi and Tomoo Takano of Japan and Ernesto Dominguez of Mexico.