Lee Vann “The Slayer” Corteza, Carlo “The Black Tiger” Biado and Roberto “Pinoy Superman” Gomez of the Philippines logged emphatic wins yesterday to advance to the Round-of-32 in the 2012 World 8-Ball Championship at the Fujairah Tennis and Country Club in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates.
The event offers a total prize money of $156,000 with $20,000 going to the champion.
Corteza, the two-time national open champion, subdued Lee Chen Man of Hongkong, 9-2, in the Round-of-64. The Davao City native, who has set his sights on achieving every billiard player’s dream — win a world title, will go up against Nguyen Phoc Luong in the next round after the Vietnamese brought down Amin Fekry of UAE, 9-8.
Biado, on the other hand ousted compatriot Elmer Haya, 9-2, while the Zamboanga City ace Gomez toppled Mario He of Austria, 9-4.
Biado will meet Toru Kuribayashi of Japan, who nipped Tomasz Kaplan of Poland, 9-7, while Gomez will face Mark Gray of Great Britain, who crushed Maghsoud Ali of Iran, 9-3.
Corteza, the multiple Southeast Asian Games gold medallist Corteza has won several big tournaments last year but still has to collect a legitimate world title.
Among his major victories were the 2011 Golden Break 9-Ball Asian Invitational Championship, the San Miguel Beer Oktoberfest 9-Ball Open Masters, the Philippine Bigtime Billiards Face-Off and the Manny Pacquiao International 10-ball Championship.
His biggest achievement so far is a runner-up finish during the 2009 World Ten Ball Championships held at the World Trade Center in Pasay City.
Meanwhile, defending champion Dennis “Robocop” Orcollo failed to advance after losing to Karol Skowerski of Poland, 9-3, in the first of the Last 32 matches.
The 28-year-old Skowerski took the challenge out of the Filipino world No. 1 after taking a 5-0 lead in the race to 9, alternate break format. He joins Ko Pin-yi of Taiwan and Liu Haitao of China in the Round-of-16.
Also getting the boot were Joven Alba, Demosthenes Pulpul and Elvis Calasang. Alba bowed to Ahmad Jallad of Jordan, 9-8; Pulpul lost to Young Hwa of Korea, 9-8 while Calasang yielded to Yukio Akagariyama of Japan, 9-2, in the Round-of-64.