Orcollo paces Pinoy masters march in World 9-Ball

MANILA, Philippines - Dennis Orcollo blew past his Qatari opponent Mishel Turkey, 11-1, to lead the advance of five Filipino bets to the Round-of-32 of the WPA World 9-ball Championship at Al Arabi Sports Club in Doha, Qatar Wednesday night.

Orcollo outclassed the debuting local bet in the opener of the KO rounds to arrange a duel with American Hunter Lombardo, who survived a hill-hill encounter with Polish Mateeusz Sniegocki, 11-10.

Fourth-ranked Carlo Biado, veteran Warren Kiamco, Oliver Medenilla, and Jeffrey Ignacio also hurdled their respective opponents to join former world 8-ball titlist Orcollo in the next phase.

Biado and Kiamco emerged victorious in a pair of All-Filipino matches, with the former beating Lee Vann Corteza, 11-5, and the latter edging Raymund Faraon, 11-9. Medenilla clobbered Polish Karol Skowerski, 11-4, while Ignacio tripped Canadian Jason Klatt, 11-5.

Last year’s quarterfinalist Johann Chua and veteran campaigner Antonio Gabica, however, got the boot and joined Corteza and Faraon on the sidelines.

Chua bowed to Japanese Yukio Akagariyama, 5-11, to kiss his title bid goodbye. Gabica, now based in Qatar, suffered the same fate and lost to Russian Ruslan Chinakov via a similar scoreline.

Biado, meanwhile, will have a chance to get back at Taiwanese Ko Pin Yi, who beat him for the world 10-ball crown, when they battle for a Round-of-16 berth Thursday night.

Next up for Kiamco, Medenilla and Ignacio are Venezuelan Jalal Yousef, Taiwanese Yu Lung Chang and Singaporean Yap Aloisius, in that order.