By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Filipino pool superstar Carlo Biado was recently hailed as the Ho Chi Minh City 9-Ball Open champion held at the Ho Xuan Huong Gymnasium in Vietnam.
The cue artist pulled off an impressive rack run against Mario He of Austria, 13-8, to clinch his third major pool championship title of the year.
Before claiming the throne in Ho Chi Minh, Biado took home the crowns during the World Nine-Ball Tour in Taipei and the World 10-Ball Championship in Las Vegas.
The veteran Filipino gem then took home the total grand prize of $35,000 (1,966,580 pesos) after winning the major 9-Ball Open tilt.
It was a hill-hill battle in the first hour of the grand final match as He was able to keep himself within striking distance and even took a one-rack lead.
However, after Biado found his groove with his kick shots to the rail, the Filipino began to steamroll midway through the match.
Just when Biado thought he already covered the pool table’s angle openings, He showed something different in his bag and scrapped out the safety plays to equalize the match at 7-all.
Little did He know that his aggressive move would lead to his lost momentum as Biado wrapped up the final racks with a 6-1 scoring run.
Courtesy of his signature bank shots that played the cue ball to precise positions for the next shot, Biado executed a flawless run-out to frustrate He and leave him behind for the championship title.
To get to the final stage, Biado had to defeat some big names in the world pool rankings, specifically Sanjin Pehlivanovic of Bosnia and Taiwanese Wang Hu-Hsian.
Biado also got the better of his co-Filipinos who joined the tournament, Anton Raga and Valeriano Pajuay in the Round of 16 and the quarterfinals.
