Chang, Gabica gain in World 10-ball tilt

MANILA, Philippines - Top seed Chang Yu Lung broke away from a tight match and whipped Spain’s David Alcaide, 9-6, while local bet Antonio Gabica upset China’s top player Liu Haitao, 9-3, at the start of the World 10-Ball eliminations at the SM City in Gen. Santos City yesterday.

Held to a 3-3 game by Alcaide, Chang swept the next three racks before the 34-year-old Taiwanese took three more in the next six racks to fashion out the victory in Group 1 and lead the march of the fancied bets in the 128-player field.

In Group 4 action, Gabica dominated Liu and compatriot Lee Van Corteza routed Muhammad Zulfikri of Malaysia, 9-2, while another Filipino, John Rebong was locked in a hill-hill 8-8 battle with Poland’s Karol Skowerski at presstime.

Eight of the world’s Top 10 players are seeing action in the tournament dubbed the “Manny Pacquiao Cup,” put up by the Filipino boxing icon. The field is divided into 16 groups with the top four in each group advance into the next round after the elims.

In other results, Boots Augusto and Christian Gariando bowed to Finland’s Petri Makkonen, 7-9, and Canadian Pahdahsung Shognosh, 8-9, respectively, in Group 1 while Poland’s Piotr Kudlik edged Aloysius Yapp of Singapore, 9-8.

Two other Filipinos won their Group 2 matches but Antonio Lining but a three-rack lead at 7-4 and lost in a hill-hill game in the race-to-8 format.

Anton Raga beat compatriot Renemar David, 9-3, while Raymund Faraon, the 17th seed and World No. 21, easily disposed of Kamal Chawla of India, 9-4. Another Chinese-Taipei ace, Liu Chien Chieh, beat Ibrahim Amir, 9-2.

In Group 3 action, all three Filipinos suffered losses and were relegated to the losers’ bracket. Ninth seed Waleed Majid of Qatar beat Jordan Legaspi, 9-6; Mieszko Fortunski of Poland trounced Demosthenes Pulpul, 9-5; and Canada’s John Morra eked out a hard-earned 9-8 win over Jundel Mazon. Wu Kun Lin of Chinese-Taipei defeated compatriot and higher-ranked Hsu Kai Lun, 9-8.