Corteza rips Peach, advances

MANILA, Philippines - Lee Van Corteza knocked off former champion Daryl Peach of Great Britain, 1-4, to barge into the Last 16 of the World 9-Ball Championship in Doha, Qatar last night.

Corteza took the opening rack and never looked back, posting the runaway victory in a big follow-up to his come-from-behind 11-7 win over Manuel Gama of Portugal in the first round of the knockout phase Tuesday.

He will next face Nick Ekonomopoulos of Greece, who ousted Mario He of Austria, 11-6.

Former Asian Games gold medalist Antonio Gabica also gained with an 11-8 victory over Oliver Ortmann of Germany.

Gabica broke away from a tight 5-4 game by taking six of the last 10 racks to seal a third round clash with Chinese Taipei’s Ko Pin Yi, who upended Mika Immonen of Finland, 11-8.

Israel Rota, meanwhile, bowed to Lo Li Wen of Chinese Taipei, 2-11.

Other Filipinos vying for berths in the third round at presstime are Jeffrey de Luna against Mohammad Zulfikri of Indonesia; Ramil Gallego against Chris Melling of United Kingdom; Dennis Orcollo against John Morra of Canada; Carlo Biado against Shane Van Boening of the US; and Marlon Manalo against Fabio Petroni of Italy.