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Carlo Biado, Duong Quoc Hoang, and the rest of the Efren “Bata” Reyes-captained Team Asia stage a surprising 4-match sweep of favored Team Europe in a momentum-changing Day 2 of the inaugural Reyes Cup
MANILA, Philippines – From underdogs to alpha dogs.
Team Asia had a night to remember in the second day of the inaugural Reyes Cup, pulling off a mesmerizing 4-0 sweep of its matches against favored Team Europe at past midnight Thursday, October 17, to pull within four wins of winning it all.
Filipino cue artist Carlo Biado capped off the team’s improbable shutout of the day with a 5-3 conquest of world No. 14 Mickey Krause, storming from a 1-2 deficit built off a tide-turning Rack 5 performance that eventually led to a Rack 8 runout for Team Asia’s seventh win in the race-to-11 tournament.
It was the fitting cherry on top for the surprise shellacking handed out in front of a partisan Manila crowd, some of whom were there to catch a glimpse of billiards’ greatest legend and the tournament’s titular figure Efren “Bata” Reyes, who is serving as Team Asia’s non-playing captain.
The stellar five-man Asian assembly came out guns blazing right in the evening’s opening team match, climbing out of a 0-2 hole created by a Rack 2 golden break from world No. 2 Eklent Kaci and seizing a 3-2 lead on the heels of a Biado-steered Rack 5.
Although Team Europe evened out at 3-3 thanks to a Jayson Shaw finish, a crucial Kaci 2-ball miss on Rack 7 paved the way for top-ranked Filipino Johann Chua to close out and take the hill at 4-3, before underrated Vietnamese Duong Quoc Hoang claimed Rack 8 off a Francisco Sanchez Ruiz dry break.
The night only got worse for Sanchez Ruiz, or “FSR” as he’s known in pool circles, after another lackluster showing in Match 2 in singles action against world No. 12 Ko Pin Yi, who mounted a quick 3-1 lead before seizing the match for good in Rack 8 off another dry break from his reeling Spaniard foe.
It was all Team Asia mastery from that point on as the tandem of world No. 11 Aloysius Yapp and Duong made light work of Kaci and world No. 7 David Alcaide in Match 3, surging to a quick 3-0 lead before claiming another tournament point off a Rack 7 runout.
Team Asia is now on the verge of scrapping the tournament’s Friday, October 18 slate altogether should it reach 11 points within the Thursday night schedule and end the historic 9-ball staging as the inaugural Reyes Cup champions. – Rappler.com
