Gonzales, 4 other Pinoys advance in world 9-ball tiff

MANILA, Philippines – Johann Gonzales led the charge as four more Filipinos advanced to the Last-64 of the WPA World 9-ball Championship on Tuesday night at Al Arabi Sports Club in Doha, Qatar.

Gonzales, a quarterfinalist last year, tripped Chang Jun Ling of Chinese-Taipei, 9-6, to book his place in the knockout rounds from the loser’s side of Group 6.

Lee Vann Corteza, Warren Kiamco, and Oliver Medenilla similarly made the most out of their last chance to progress and hurdled their respective assignments.

Corteza clobbered Canadian Tom Terialult, 9-2, in a win-or-go-home match in Group 7 while Kiamco and Medenilla hacked out identical 9-6 victories over Canadian Shannon Ducharme and Norwegian Vegar Kristiansen in a pair of Group 5 outings.

The four’s victories brought to nine the roster of Filipino bets in the Round-of-64. Dennis Orcollo, Jeffrey Ignacio, Antonio Gabica, Carlo Biado and Raymund Faraon earlier earned their berths after two successive victories in their respective groups.

Francisco Felicilda, however, yielded to Polish Tomasz Kaplan, 7-9, to bow out in Group 12. He was the second casualty after Qatar-based Pinoy Amir Rota, who absorbed two losses in group play.

Two Phl cuemasters, though, are sure to take the exit after the Round-of-64 as Kiamco will play Faraon and Biado will slug it out with Corteza in Wednesday night’s KO sessions.

Gonzales will take on Japanese Yuko Akagariyama while Ignacio will duel with Canadian Jason Klatt, Gabica will face Russian Ruslan Chinakhov, Medenilla will meet Polish Karol Skowerski, and Orcollo will battle Qatari Mishel Turkey.