Chua rules Hanoi Open

Johann Chua finally won his first nine-ball world title, beating Ko Pin Yi of Chinese Taipei, 13-7, in the Mansion Sports Hanoi Open at the Hanoi Indoor Games Gymnasium in Vietnam last Sunday.

Chua, 31, pocketed $30,000 (P 1.7 million) for topping the tournament and became a world champion like his teammate Carlo Biado.

The road to the championship had been a tough one for Chua.

Chua slammed teammate Jundel Mazon, 10-7, in the Round of 64 before whipping Taiwanese Chien Ching-Ju, 10-2, in the Round of 32.

The 2023 World Cup of Pool doubles champion breezed past Filipino Jeffrey Ignacio, 10-3, in the Round of 16 and then clobbered up-and-coming cue master Kledio Kaci of Albania, 10-6, in the quarterfinal.

Chua had to beat Biado, 11-5, in the semifinal to book his spot in the championship round to meet Ko.

Jeffrey Roda could have made it an all-Filipino final if he didn’t suffer a 2-11 defeat to Ko in the semis.

Despite this, both Biado and Roda will pocket $9,500 or P546,102.75.

After this, Chua, Biado, and Ko are slated to join forces in the Reyes Cup starting Tuesday at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium along with Aloysius Yapp of Singapore and Duong Quoc Hoang of Vietnam.

Team Asia, captained by Filipino great Efren “Bata” Reyes, will go up against Team Europe with Jayson Shaw of Scotland, Francisco Sanchez Ruiz and David Alcaide of Spain, Mikey Krause of Denmark, and Albanian Eklent Kaci.