Johann Chua and Carlo Biado scored back-to-back wins on Wednesday, March 12, to jumpstart their respective title campaigns in the 2025 European Open Pool Championships at the Hills Hotel Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Chua, who finished as a runner-up last year, hardly broke a sweat in dispatching local bet Mustafa Hadzibajric, 9-1, before keeping his composure in surviving Germany’s Boris Ivanovski, 9-8, to advance to the next round of this double-elimination preliminaries.

Biado also had little problem in blanking Alwaleed Khaled Almudhayan of Saudi Arabia, 9-0, in the opening round, but needed to dig deep in outlasting Ahmed Aldulaimi of Kuwait, 9-8.

The victory arranged Chua his next match against Finland’s Riku Romppanen, while Biado next faces Imran Majid of United Kingdom, where a victory would assure them of seats in the 64-player knockout stage.

Romppanen made his title bid felt with victories over Bosnians Juso Hasanovic, 9-5, and Adjdin Pinkjac, 9-3, while Majid also had an easy time in barging into the third round with commanding triumphs over Vietnam’s Hai Long Le, 9-1, and hometown bet Edin Kovacevic, 9-5.

A total of 256 players across the globe are competing in this $200,000 tournament including the top 128 professionals from the World Nineball Tour.

The champion player will receive the $40,000 lion’s share.