ADVERTISEMENT
Manila Bulletin devider Sports devider 12 Pinoy cue artists march into World Pool Championship KO stage

12 Pinoy cue artists march into World Pool Championship KO stage

Published Jul 24, 2025 09:53 am

At A Glance

  • Twelve Filipinos spearheaded by former champion Carlo Biado, last year's semifinalist Johann Chua and teen sensation AJ Manas toppled their rivals to advance to the 64-player knockout stage of the 2025 World Pool Championship at the Green Halls in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, July 23.
AJ Manas makes head turn in the World Pool Championship. (File Photo/Matchroom Pool)
AJ Manas makes head turn in the World Pool Championship. (File Photo/Matchroom Pool)
Twelve Filipinos spearheaded by former champion Carlo Biado, last year’s semifinalist Johann Chua and teen sensation AJ Manas toppled their rivals to advance to the 64-player knockout stage of the 2025 World Pool Championship at the Green Halls in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, July 23.
The 41-year-old Biado, who seeks to duplicate his 2017 title, flashed his vintage form and defeated fellow Filipino Lee Vann Corteza, 9-4, while Chua had an easier time in routing Hungary’s Oliver Szolnoki, 9-3.
Eighteen-year-old Manas, for his part, made heads turn by stunning reigning UK Open champion Aloysius Yapp of Singapore, 9-5, to join Biado and Chua in this 128-player tournament that offers a US$1 million (around P56.9 million).
Bernie Regalario also pulled off one of the day’s upset victories by shocking former world champion Ko Pin Yi of Chinese Taipei, 9-6, while James Aranas, who won the 2023 World Cup of Pool title with Chua, also earned a spot into the next stage with a 9-5 triumph over Austria’s Albin Ouschan,
Also barging into the next stage were Marvin Asis, who drubbed Greece’s Dimitris Loukatas, 9-3; Jefrey Roda, who toppled Turkey’s Mustafa Alnar, 9-4; Anton Raga, who dumped Syria’s Mohammad Soufi, 9-5; Roland Garcia, who outlasted Iraq’s Ammer Ali, 9-7; and Jeffrey Ignacio, who outhustled fellow Filipino Michael Baoanan in a hill-hill battle, 9-8.
Michael Feliciano and Patric Gonzales, meanwhile, had to bounce back from earlier losses to Bosnia’s Sanjin Pehlivanovic (9-2) and Chinese Taipei’s Ko Ping Chung (9-5) with victories to Germany’s Stefan Kasper (9-8) and Chinese Taipei’s Ko Ping Han (9-1) and in the loser’s bracket to stay in the hunt.
Corteza, Baoanan, Mark Kalagayan and Alexis Ferrer were also relegated to the loser’s bracket but failed to recover with defeats over Portugal’s Joao Grilo (9-5), Albania’s Kedio Kaci (9-7), Germany’s Thorsten Hohmann (9-6) and Italy’s Francesco Candela (9-7), respectively.
ADVERTISEMENT
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1561_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1562_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1563_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}

{{ articles_filter_1564_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.mb-article-details { position: relative; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview, .mb-article-details .article-body-summary{ font-size: 17px; line-height: 30px; font-family: "Libre Caslon Text", serif; color: #000; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview iframe , .mb-article-details .article-body-summary iframe{ width: 100%; margin: auto; } .read-more-background { background: linear-gradient(180deg, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0) 13.75%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0.8) 30.79%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000) 72.5%); position: absolute; height: 200px; width: 100%; bottom: 0; display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; padding: 0; } .read-more-background a{ color: #000; } .read-more-btn { padding: 17px 45px; font-family: Inter; font-weight: 700; font-size: 18px; line-height: 16px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; border: 1px solid black; background-color: white; } .hidden { display: none; }
function initializeAllSwipers() { // Get all hidden inputs with cms_article_id document.querySelectorAll('[id^="cms_article_id_"]').forEach(function (input) { const cmsArticleId = input.value; const articleSelector = '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .body_images'; const swiperElement = document.querySelector(articleSelector); if (swiperElement && !swiperElement.classList.contains('swiper-initialized')) { new Swiper(articleSelector, { loop: true, pagination: false, navigation: { nextEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-next', prevEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-prev', }, }); } }); } setTimeout(initializeAllSwipers, 3000); const intersectionObserver = new IntersectionObserver( (entries) => { entries.forEach((entry) => { if (entry.isIntersecting) { const newUrl = entry.target.getAttribute("data-url"); if (newUrl) { history.pushState(null, null, newUrl); let article = entry.target; // Extract metadata const author = article.querySelector('.author-section').textContent.replace('By', '').trim(); const section = article.querySelector('.section-info ').textContent.replace(' ', ' '); const title = article.querySelector('.article-title h1').textContent; // Parse URL for Chartbeat path format const parsedUrl = new URL(newUrl, window.location.origin); const cleanUrl = parsedUrl.host + parsedUrl.pathname; // Update Chartbeat configuration if (typeof window._sf_async_config !== 'undefined') { window._sf_async_config.path = cleanUrl; window._sf_async_config.sections = section; window._sf_async_config.authors = author; } // Track virtual page view with Chartbeat if (typeof pSUPERFLY !== 'undefined' && typeof pSUPERFLY.virtualPage === 'function') { try { pSUPERFLY.virtualPage({ path: cleanUrl, title: title, sections: section, authors: author }); } catch (error) { console.error('ping error', error); } } // Optional: Update document title if (title && title !== document.title) { document.title = title; } } } }); }, { threshold: 0.1 } ); function showArticleBody(button) { const article = button.closest("article"); const summary = article.querySelector(".article-body-summary"); const body = article.querySelector(".article-body-preview"); const readMoreSection = article.querySelector(".read-more-background"); // Hide summary and read-more section summary.style.display = "none"; readMoreSection.style.display = "none"; // Show the full article body body.classList.remove("hidden"); } document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => { let loadCount = 0; // Track how many times articles are loaded const offset = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]; // Offset values const currentUrl = window.location.pathname.substring(1); let isLoading = false; // Prevent multiple calls if (!currentUrl) { console.log("Current URL is invalid."); return; } const sentinel = document.getElementById("load-more-sentinel"); if (!sentinel) { console.log("Sentinel element not found."); return; } function isSentinelVisible() { const rect = sentinel.getBoundingClientRect(); return ( rect.top < window.innerHeight && rect.bottom >= 0 ); } function onScroll() { if (isLoading) return; if (isSentinelVisible()) { if (loadCount >= offset.length) { console.log("Maximum load attempts reached."); window.removeEventListener("scroll", onScroll); return; } isLoading = true; const currentOffset = offset[loadCount]; window.loadMoreItems().then(() => { let article = document.querySelector('#widget_1690 > div:nth-last-of-type(2) article'); intersectionObserver.observe(article) loadCount++; }).catch(error => { console.error("Error loading more items:", error); }).finally(() => { isLoading = false; }); } } window.addEventListener("scroll", onScroll); });
Join Our Newsletters

Sign up by email to receive news.

© 2025 Manila Bulletin The Nation's Leading Newspaper. All Rights Reserved.