BREAKING NEWS: The Philippines’ world pool champions Dennis Orcollo and Carlo Biado are playing in the top 4 matches on the final day of the 2021 US Open Pool Championship, opening the possibility of an all-Filipino 9-Ball Tour final in the Atlantic City event.
Orcollo and Biado are keeping the country’s flag flying proudly in the prestigious tournament as Filipinos continue to rule the US Open after winning their respective matches in the quarterfinals played Friday night (Saturday morning Philippine Standard Time).
Four members of Team Philippines first cleared the preliminary rounds in a field of the world’s 256 professional pool players to reach the top 16 knockout matches on Thursday (Friday morning PST).
Orcollo and Biado together with countrymen Rodrigo Geronimo and Johann Gonzales Chua reached the top 16 and afterward won their respective matches later in the day to barge into the quarterfinals, making a strong statement as the Filipinos comprised half of the final 8 pool.
The US Open on Matchroom Pool praised the Filipino players exclaiming, “These boys can play. Half of the remaining field is Filipino! What a hotbed of talent they possess.”
https://twitter.com/MatchroomPool/status/1438934897591214083?s=20
Dennis Orcollo, the Money Game King and 2016 U.S. Open Straight Pool Champion, is on a winning streak at the ongoing tour.
The country’s gold medalist in the 2019 SEA Games downed two Austrian champions in succession – Mario He in the Round of 16, 11-6, and Maximillian Lechner in the quarterfinals, 11-7, on Friday night (Saturday morning PST) to secure his semifinal spot.
Orcollo will be matched against Singapore’s junior 9-ball champion, Aloysius Yapp in the semis matches scheduled for September 18.
https://twitter.com/MatchroomPool/status/1438984367280373762?s=20
Carlo Biado, the 2019 World 9-Ball Runner-up winner, took a longer route to the semifinals after playing in the losers’ bracket. Biado executed a win over fellow Filipino Jeff De Luna and Jayson Shaw of Scotland to get a berth in the knockout stage.
Biado defeated two-time World Pool Masters winner David Alcaide Bermudez of Spain in the Round of 16, 11-10, to earn his spot in the quarterfinals. Biado was again pitted against another Filipino player in the quarterfinal match which he won against Chua, 11-10.
Biado is set to face Japan’s Naoyuki Oi, the 2012 WPA World 9-Ball semifinalist.
https://twitter.com/MatchroomPool/status/1439023276416802819?s=20
Johann Gonzales Chua also went undefeated until the quarterfinals after defeating Canadian 9-ball champion John Morra in the Round of 16.
Rodrigo Geronimo played in the losers’ bracket but got into the final 16 and the quarterfinals where he lost to Denis Grabe, Estonia’s Euro Tour two-time winner.
Legendary billiard master Efren “Bata” Reyes is the last Filipino to win the US Open 9-ball Championship in 1994.
The 2021 US Open Championship has a prize pot of $50,000 for the winner and $25,000 for the Runner-up.
WATCH Filipino champions Dennis Orcollo and Carlo Biado compete against the best of the world in the US Open 9-Ball Pool Championship semis on YouTube and SEND WELL WISHES in the comments below!
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