MANILA, Philippines – Carlo Biado saw his title defense in the US Open Pool Championship in Atlantic City foiled as he crashed out of the semifinals on Saturday, October 15 (Sunday, October 16, Manila time).

Biado stormed back from four racks down but fell prey to eventual champion Francisco Sanchez Ruiz of Spain in a heartbreaking 11-10 loss.

Shrugging off a shaky start, the Filipino cue artist overhauled a 6-10 deficit by winning the next four racks to draw level and put pressure on the Spaniard.

But Biado ran out of luck in the deciding rack as he bungled a bank shot on the four ball, which Sanchez Ruiz easily drained before he pocketed the remaining four balls on the table to advance to the finale.

“We fell short. You all saw the match, I fought back,” said Biado in Filipino in a video posted on his Facebook page.

“Part of the game,” he added. “It is what it is.”

Biado still bagged $13,500 (almost P800,000) for finishing at joint third place with Ko Ping Chung of Chinese Taipei.

Meanwhile, Sanchez Ruiz raked in the top prize of $50,000 (almost P3 million) after hacking out a 13-10 win over Max Lechner of Austria in the championship match.

Filipinos Lee Vann Corteza and Roland Garcia wound up at joint ninth place as they reached the last 16 round. – Rappler.com