De Luna, Malayan, Corteza stay alive at 8-ball worlds

MANILA, Philippines — Filipinos Jeff de Luna, Sean Mark Malayan and Lee Van Corteza showed incredible poise in pulling off heart-stopping wins that kept them in the title hunt in the World Men’s 8-Ball Championship in St. Louis, Missouri over the weekend.

With their backs against the wall, De Luna smashed Kiwi Clark Sullivan, 8-4; Malayan edged German Joshua Filler, 8-7l and Corteza trounced Fin Arseni Sevastyanov, 8-4, to live to fight for another day.

De Luna, Malayan and Corteza would need no less than a win against German Stefan Kasper, Fin Casper Cappe Matikainen and unattached Wiktor Zielinski, respectively, to gatecrash into the Round of 32.

Carlo Biado, who had an easier path by making the winner’s round early, faced trouble this time and stumbled to American Skyler Woodard, 8-4.

But the Filipino ace, who had won everything but this 8-ball tilt, will have one more shot at making it through the knockout round as he was battling Ukrainian Vitaliy Patsura as of this writing.

Failing to survive was Roberto Gomez, who was sent home packing by Pole Radoslaw Babica with an 8-7 win.