By MARK REY MONTEJO
Johann Chua and Carlo Biado made their title bids in the 2025 US Open Pool 9-Ball Championship known to everyone with convincing wins at Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City Tuesday, Aug. 19 (Philippine time).
Straight from his Battle of the Bull triumph over the weekend, Chua remained red-hot as he toppled American Floro Ritarita (9-5) and Dutch Quinten Pongers (9-7) in his first two assignments. At posting time, the 33-year-old Chua still awaits his next rival.
The two-time World Pool Championship winner Biado, for his part, flexed his might right away as he cruised past Canadian Jason Munro, 9-1.
Up next for the 41-year-old Biado is German Boris Ivanovski for his second task in the preliminaries.
Chua (No. 4) and Biado (No. 2) are expected to enter the knockout stages of the 256-man tournament – which offers a grand winner’s purse of $100,000 (around P5.7 million) – as the two are currently inside the WNT’s Top Five.
Michael Baoanan was also victorious after collecting the scalps of American Rajmond Pali (9-4), and Italian Francesco Candela (9-3) – a streak which might be broken as he tangles next with reigning champion Fedor Gorst.
Marvin Asis, Lee Vann Corteza, Roland Garcia, Bernie Regalario, Jefrey Roda, Roberto Gomez, and Baseth Mocaibat also notched their respective wins, while Harry Vergara split his two matches.
Patric Gonzales, Charles Darwin Vergara, Glen Facun, and Mark Muir need to play much better to stay in contention after yielding their opening games.
