MANILA, Philippines – Carlo Biado remained the last Filipino standing in the US Open Pool Championship in Atlantic City as he barged into the semifinals on Friday, October 14 (Saturday, October 15, Manila time).

Biado survived a tough challenge from Poland’s Konrad Juszczyszyn and pulled off a 10-7 victory before he eased past Chinese Taipei’s Hsieh Chia Chen via a 10-0 shutout win to keep his title repeat bid running.

The last Filipino hope after compatriots Lee Vann Corteza and Roland Garcia bowed out of the last 16, Biado needed to fend off a pesky Juszczyszyn to advance to the quarterfinals.

Juszczyszyn trailed two racks in the race-to-10 battle and knotted the score at 7-7, but Biado kept his composure and captured the next three racks.

The former nine-ball world champion then barely broke a sweat in his annihilation of Hsiah to book his spot in the final four.

Corteza and Garcia saw their run come to a screeching halt as they respectively fell prey to Britain’s Chris Melling, 10-2, and Austria’s Max Lechner, 10-5, in the last 16.

Other Filipinos Johann Chua and Roberto Gomez reached the last 64 but succumbed to Albania’s Eklent Kaci and Chinese Taipei’s Wu Kun Lin, respectively.

Biado seeks a second straight finals appearance in the 256-man tournament when he tangles with Spain’s Francisco Sanchez Ruiz in the semifinals on Saturday.

The other semifinal pairing pits Lechner against Chinese Taipei’s Ko Ping Chung.

Already guaranteed of $13,500 (nearly P800,000), Biado has his eyes set on the grand prize of $50,000 (nearly P3 million). – Rappler.com