FINALLY settling down after battling
opening-day jitters, Antonio Gabica ripped Silverio Tulabing
9-4 yesterday to advance to the third round of the $30,000
Philippine Pool Tour Mandaluyong Mayor’s Cup 10-ball
championship.
Gabica, who showed some signs of nerves in
a 9-6 victory over Richard Rollo on Tuesday, is one of four
players the fancied Marlon Manalo believes would be tough to
crack in the event offering $10,000 to the champion.
Also a multiple Southeast Asian Games gold
medal winner, Gabica lost the lag and the first rack before
winning the next four for a 4-1 lead and the last four frames
to break loose from a 5-4 count.
Manalo and another top gun, Jeffrey De Luna
also got off to rousing debuts Tuesday night at the Kaban ng
Hiyas Auditorium.
Manalo, a son of Mandaluyong, encountered
some anxious moments before beating Luis Saberdo, just a few
minutes after the power-breaking De Luna dropped just three
racks against Frenchman John Berille.
The winner of the Reno Open in 2005, Manalo
even trailed 1-3 and 4-6 before closing out the match by
gluing Saberdo to his seat to win the next five frames.
"He’s still a good player," Manalo, 36,
said of his opponent, a member of the Philippine team from the
late 80s until the start of the decade. "He got off to a good
start and made me play a lot of catch up."
Berille became the first foreign player to
drop to the loser’s bracket after absorbing a 3-9 loss to De
Luna, who stayed on track towards a possible quarterfinal
collision with German ace Thorsten Hohmann.
Hohmann, a former world champion, had little difficulty in
disposing of Benigno Lopez Deleon 9-2 to join Johnny Archer of
the United States and Satoshi Kabawata in the next round.
