By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Team Philippines saw its title-retention vanish into thin air after absorbing another stinging 3-2 loss to Spain in the WPA Predator World Teams Championship at the Puerto Rico Convention Center in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Friday, Nov. 10 (Saturday in Manila).
Needing a win to advance to the knockout quarterfinals stage, the Filipinos could not re-produce the magic it displayed the last time and suffered their second defeat in group stage as former world 9-ball champion Carlo Biado dropped all his three matches, including in the shootout with David Alcaide Bermudez, 4-2.
They launched their campaign on sour note after a 3-2 defeat to the Americans before outclassing the hosts, 3-0, in the $300,000 10-ball.
Reigning world women’s 10-ball champion Chezka Centeno started the PH campaign on a high note by outclassing Mayte Ropero in the first singles match but Biado lost to Francisco Sanchez Ruiz, 4-2.
Roland Garcia put Team PH back in the driver’s seat with a 4-2 win over David Alcaide Bermudez.
But Biado, also a member of the team that won the crown last year with Rubilen Amit and Johann Chua, faltered again, losing to Sanchez 4-3, a defeat the required the deciding fifth singles match.
It was a bad night for Biado, the 2017 World 9-Ball champion, as he lost to Alcaide,
It was a painful defeat for the Filipinos, who were aiming to become the first back-to-back champion in this tournament.
A victory for Team PH could have earned them a berth in the knockout quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, Garcia couldn’t sustain his hot performance in the team event as he lost to Poland’s Konrad Juszczyszyn, 2-0, in the Puerto Rico Men’s 10-Ball Open title held on the same day.
Prior to his championship defeat, Garcia blasted Germany’s Joshua Filler, 2-0, and Austria’s Mario He, 2-0, in the quarters and semis.
Biado, for his part, fell short in defending his crown after getting eliminated in the Last 16 at the expense of Fedor Gorst, 2-0.
Centeno and Amit, meanwhile, remained in contention in the distaff side after clobbering Korean Seo Seoa and Japanese Yuki Hiraguchi with identical 2-0 scores in the Last 16.
Centeno is playing against Austrian Jasmin Ouschan in the quarters at presstime, while Amit was battling Chinese Taipei’s Wi Tzu-Chien.
The 24-year-old Centeno had to thread through the eye of the needle to make it to the knockout stage, downing American Julie Madlener (2-0), Margaret Fefilova (2-1) and German Pia Filler (2-0), to reach the Last 16.
However, victories for Amit and Centeno in their respective quarters matches would set them up a semis meeting against each other.
