World 10-ball champion Carlo Biado, Johann Chua and Jefrey Roda toppled their respective quarterfinal opponents on Saturday, Oct. 12, to arrange an all-Asian semifinals in the 2024 Hanoi 9-Ball Open Pool Championship at the Hanoi Indoor Games Gymnasium in Vietnam.

Biado, who was coming off a title win in the Ho Chi Minh 9-Ball Open late last month, displayed his aggressive plays to clobber last year’s world 9-ball champion Francisco Sanchez Ruiz of Spain, 10-5, to set up an all-Filipino duel with teammate Johann Chua.

The Filipino veteran maintained his strong form, racing to a five-rack lead and securing his place in the semifinal with a 3-9 combo.

Chua, who joined forces with Biado and Amit in ruling the WPA World Team Championship in 2022, was equally dominant against Kledio Kaci as he routed the Albanian, 10-6, but not without some brief scares.

The Filipino engaged in a tight rack exchange to disrupt Kaci’s momentum before reaching the hill first at 9-6, but a failed safety on the 2-ball gave Kaci one last opportunity to mount a comeback.

However, a costly scratch after potting the 7-ball sealed Kaci’s fate, allowing Chua to close out the match and advance to the next round.

Roda, for his part, had to dig deep in edging teammate Harry Vergara to prevail 10-8. He faces a dangerous rival in 2015 world 9-ball and 10-ball winner Ko Pin Yi of Chinese Taipei, who dethroned and squeaked past last year’s champion Jayson Shaw of Great Britain, 10-9.

The semis are being played at press time, with the finals slated in the evening.