Carlo Biado celebrates on the table after his latest masterpiece. —MATCHROOMPOOL PHOTO
An hour or so after winning the World Pool Championship for the second time in his already-decorated profession, Carlo Biado was already on the airport waiting for a flight back home.
“No time for celebration,” Biado said on his Facebook page after edging out last 12 months’s champion Fedor Gorst, 15-13, in a back-and-forth final in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Sunday morning in Manila. “My celebration is with family, [which] is my biggest trophy in life.”
Biado, 41, could have a while to reflect on not only becoming the primary Filipino to capture the distinguished 9-ball event on multiple occasions, but additionally taking home the highest purse of $250,000 (P14.29 million).
It’s an enormous pot for Biado, who repeated his victory from the 2017 edition, aside from other accomplishments on the skilled circuit and with the national team that included a 2024 World 10-Ball crown, three golds within the Southeast Asian Games and one other within the 2017 World Games.
And it got here on the expense of Gorst, the American who refused to buckle down amid a pair of huge deficits within the title match at Green Halls within the Saudi capital.
Gorst, a Russian-born pool player who now represents the US, battled back from a 9-2 deficit to win seven straight racks, then made one other rebellion after Biado answered back to steer 13-9, highlighted by a jump shot to convert a 3-ball into the corner pocket.
The 25-year-old won 4 in a row to level the count at 13-all. But a dry break on the twenty seventh rack was the opening Biado needed to clear the ultimate two racks and end his long wait for one more world 9-ball crown.
“This final is unforgettable because Fedor is top-of-the-line players on the earth and a monster on the table,” Biado told tournament organizer Matchroom Pool. “I used to be frightened even when I used to be leading 9-2, but was still focused on the sport, even when he got here back.”
Biado pulled off what past Filipino winners Efren “Bata” Reyes, Ronnie Alcano and Francisco “Django” Bustamante didn’t do during their careers.
Reyes and Bustamante won only once in 1999 and 2010, respectively, while 2006 champion Alcano was denied a second back in 2011 by Japan’s Yukio Akakariyama.
Biado’s initial bid, however, was thwarted in 2018 after losing in the ultimate to Germany’s Joshua Filler.
Biado never lost in the course of the five-day event in Jeddah, opening the campaign with wins over Jan Van Lierop, 9-5 and fellow Filipino Lee Van Corteza, 9-4, to breeze through the knockout stage.
He defeated Chris Melling, 11-9, and Wiktor Zielinski, 11-8, in the primary two rounds before defeating one other compatriot in Jeffrey Ignacio, 11-9, and Chinese-Taipei’s Ko Ping Chung, 11-7.
That put him in an intriguing semifinal meeting with one other Filipino in 20-year-old Bernie Regalario, who was looking to finish the largest win of his pool profession. But Biado’s experience outclassed Regalario’s youth as he won, 11-3, that ended with Biado completing a golden break.
“That golden break [meant that] it is perhaps my lucky day,” Biado said.
It turned out to be not only his lucky day. It was also a giant payday, and his place in pool history. INQ