Newly crowned world 9-ball champion Carlo Biado. (Photo from Spin.ph)
JEDDAH, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia — For Filipino cue artist Carlo Biado, it was sweet victory from a grueling race-to-15 match against world’s number one cue artist Fedor Gorst of the United States who kept on coming back to even the score until after the 26th rack when Biado took the lead and never looked back.
Nipping Gorst 15-to-13 racks, Biado reclaimed the world 9-ball title to become the first Filipino multiple champion in the event as well as the first Pinoy to replicate his 2017 triumph.
So, for the first time in eight lamentable years, a compatriot is back as a world champion in world nine-ball.
“I’m very happy. My opponent is a monster and is tough to beat, but I like this kind of game,” Biado, known as ‘The Black Tiger’, enthused after winning against his American opponent. He will be bringing home US$250,000 (about ₱14 million) as prize money for ruling one of the most prestigious titles in billiards at the posh Green Halls stadium in Jeddah.
Biado’s victory is also the fifth time that a Filipino cue master will bring home the World Pool Championship trophy after Efren ‘Bata’ Reyes in 1999, Ronato ‘Ronnie’ Alcano in 2006, and Francisco ‘Django’ Bustamante in 2010.
At the start of their matchup, Biado fell behind 2-0, but he quickly strung nine straight racks to take the lead at 9-2 before Gorst responded with a stifling rally to tie the score at 9-all.
In the 19th rach, however, Gorst scratched the cue ball and once again Biado grabbed the momentum to score four straight racks to notch a 13-9 lead, which included a masterful rack 22 where he made an impressive jump on the two to the upper right corner and an amazing bank on the eight to the upper left.
Still, the American fought back on a lucky break when Biado scratched on his break. Gorst took advantage, making a 2-9 combination in rack 24 and a break and runout in rack 26 to level the match at 13.
Yet this was Biado’s turn at the spotlight and capitalizing on Gorst’s dry break in rack 27, the Pinoy hit with a solid 1-6 combination before a runout in rack 28 brought him back in pool’s pinnacle as ‘King of the Hill’.