Johann Chua faces Carlo Biado in a battle of elite Filipino players in the second round of the 2024 Maldives Open 10-Ball Championship in Malé City Friday, June 28.

Chua displayed steely nerves against Swedish Kevin Zarekani, 10-4, to set up a Last 32 clash with Biado in the week-long tournament which has a $130,000 (roughly P7.6 million) prize pool.

The 2023 World Cup of Pool champion flexed his might early on after taking a 4-0 lead, but Zarekani refused to go down without a fight and trimmed the gap to just 2, 5-3, in their race-to-10 matchup.

That was the closest the Swedish could reach as Chua brought his A-game by taking four straight racks which was enough to seal the match despite some counters coming from his opponent.

Other Filipinos advancing as well in the meet are Bernie Regalario, Jeffrey Ignacio, Jonas Magpantay, Michael Baoanan and Sean Mark Malayan. 

Regalario and Ignacio will face Austria’s Mario He and Taiwanese Ko Ping Chung, respectively.

Unfortunately, James Aranas suffered a quick exit as he fell to Hong Kong’s Kin Ling Yip in their hill-hill matchup, 9-10.

Big names are also taking part in the competition, including Taiwan’s Ko Pin-yi, Singapore’s Aloysius Yapp, Japan’s Naoyuki Oi and USA’s Fedor Gorst, who recently reigned supreme in the World Pool Championship earlier this month.