MANILA, Philippines - Two more Filipino players have earned seats to the main draw of the World Ten Ball Championship.
Veteran campaigner Antonio Lining and businessman Emil Martinez secured berths after ruling their respective qualifying stages in the penultimate day of the WTBC qualifiers at the Star Billiards Center in Quezon City.
Lining repulsed Han Hao Xiang of China in an exciting hill-hill encounter, 9-8, in Qualifier 8, while Martinez had an easier time winning over his Japanese rival Kazuo Furuta, 9-5. Their victories hiked the number of Filipino participants in the main draw to 17.
Two more berths are being disputed as of press time in the final day of the qualifying stages.
It was a remarkable comeback victory by Lining, who made his mark competing overseas, edging his opponent in a match that lasted for two-and-a-half hours.
Lining bounced back strong after getting blown out by Jundel Mazon, who had already qualified in the main draw the other day.
The pride of Pinamalayan, Oriental Mindoro became the sixth Filipino qualifier in the only world championship in pool this year. The locals took the last four seats in the qualifying sessions.
The other Filipino qualifiers are Ramil Gallego, Michael Feliciano, Roberto Gomez and Mazon. The only foreigners to enter the main draw through the qualifying round are Wang Ming of China and Chang Pei-wei of Chinese Taipei.
Martinez toppled Kazuo Furuta of Japan in the Qualifier 7 final, 9-5, to keep the Filipino streak alive.
It was easily the biggest triumph in the pool career of Martinez, an owner of a tracking company in Muñoz, Quezon City.
The Filipinos ruled the past two days of competition despite more than a hundred foreign participants included in the qualifying stages, including those from noted pool playing nations like Japan, Chinese Taipei, Great Britain, Indonesia and China.