Chua book semis spot in US Open

MANILA, Philippines — Johann Chua of the Philippines continued to soar following an impressive 10-2 victory over Dutch Niels Fiejen yesterday in the quarterfinals of the US Open Pool Championships at the Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

That one-sided triumph pushed the 2021 Southeast Asian Games gold winner straight to the semis or two wins shy of adding another diadem to the World Cup of Pool crown he and James Aranas captured two years ago in Spain.

Just by being in the semis, the 33-year-old Chua is ensured of pocketing $25,000, or a whopping P1.4 million.

But, of course, expect Chua to shoot for the moon and get that precious US Open title that only three other Filipinos before him had done – Efren “Bata” Reyes in 1994, Alex Pagulayan in 2005 and Carlo Biado in 2021.

Also, that distinction comes with an astonishing prize of $100,000 or P5.6 million.

And it almost happened that another Filipino could have made it to the Last 4 if not for a heartbreaking 10-9 defeat by Michael Baoanan to defending champion and world No. 1 Fedor Gorst of the United States.

The 34-year-old Baoanan blew an early 6-2 lead and was on the verge of upsetting Gorst and pulling the biggest victory of his life when he led, 9-7.

But fate wasn’t on his side as Gorst did what he always pulled off, making another nearly impossible comeback to steal the match and deny Baoanan that chance of earning himself a place in the sun.