Filipino Lee Van Corteza scored back-to-back wins yesterday to share the early lead in the 2013 China 9-Ball Open in Shanghai, China.
His latest victory was against Naoyuki Oi of Japan, 9-3, in Group G. The Davao City native Corteza, earlier beat Marcus Chamat of Sweden, 9-5, in the first round. His next opponent will be Cheng Chieh Liu of Chinese-Taipei, who brought down compatriots Ying Chieh Chen, 9-6, and Fu Che-wei, 9-7, respectively.
Also with two wins were Kenny Kwok of Singapore and Thorsten Hohmann of Germany in Group A; Chang Jung-lin and Lu Hui Chan of Chinese-Taipei in Group B; Liu Wei and Wang Can of China in Group C; Yukio Akagariyama of Japan and Fu Jian Bo of China in Group D; Nick Ekonomopoulous of Greece and Dang Jin Hu of China in Group E and Jason Klatt of Canada and Yang Ching-shun of Chinese-Taipei in Group F.
In other Filipino results, Alex Pagulayan beat Carlo Biado, 9-7 in the first round but bowed to Dang Jin Hu, 9-4, in the second in Group E. Dennis Orcollo yielded to Andreas Gerwen of Luxembourg, 9-8 in the first round but bounced back in contention after edging Nick van den berg of the Netherlands, 9-7, in Group G.
Biado will meet Ko pin-yi of Chinese-Taipei, who lost to Nick Ekonomopoulous, 9-3. Ko, earlier beat Mike Dechaine of the USA, 9-2. Pagulayan, meantime goes up against Hus Kai Lun of Chinese-Taipei while Orcollo battles Wang Ming of China.
In women’s action, Iris Ranola subdued Jiang Teng, 7-2, in the first round but succumbed to Chen Siming and Charlene Chai Huey, in similar, 7-4, scores in Group H.
Her compatriot Rubilen Amit lost her first match to Wu Zhi Ting, 7-5, but won her second round match to Wei-Tzu-Chien, 7-2, in Group A to stay in the title hunt.