The Philippines’ Carlo Biado and AJ Manas looked headed for the championship hill at the WPA Men’s Doubles 10-Ball World Championship held at the Heritage Garden of the Bali International Convention Centre in Indonesia on Monday.
Then, Manas, the teenager making his championship debut on the global stage, might have felt the pressure as he scratched with just three balls left for the Philippines. That was the opening Spain’s Francisco Sanchez Ruiz and David Alcaide needed to pull out a 4-1, 0-4, 3-4, 4-1, 4-2 victory and take home the WPA Men’s Doubles 10-Ball World Championship.
The Philippines’ Carlo Biado and AJ Manas wilted under tremendous pressure late, while Spain’s Francisco Sanchez Ruiz and David Alcaide showed incredible poise in pulling off a 4-1, 0-4, 3-4, 4-1, 4-2 victory yesterday to rule the WPA Men’s Doubles 10-Ball World Championship at the Heritage Garden of the Bali International Convention Centre in Indonesia.
Tied two sets apiece and 2-2 with just three balls left in the fifth and deciding set, the Filipinos appeared headed to taking the rack and moving one frame from giving the Philippines another world title. But Manas, a 19-year-old making his finals debut on the world stage, scratched the cue ball after sinking the 8-ball.
Manas’ Scratch Proves Costly
The finale was as good as advertised. The Spanish pair took the first set, 4-1, before the Filipinos returned the favor by taking the second set, 4-0. Manas and Biado moved ahead with a pulsating 4-3 victory in the third, only for Ruiz and Alcaide to tie things up at 2-2 with a 4-1 victory in the fourth.
Come the fifth set, the two teams wound up tied at 2-2 after four matches, and the Filipino side appeared primed to take the fifth one with only three balls left to pocket. That would’ve put Manas and Biado on the hill at 3-2 with the break. Instead, the 19-year-old Manas scratched late, allowing the Spanish duo to steal that fifth match and race up the hill.
Ruiz and Alcaide didn’t waste that opening as they followed up that fifth-set victory with a break-and-run in the very next match to win the WPA Men’s Doubles 10-Ball World Championship.
Heartbreak for Manas, Missed Chance for Biado
The late scratch was a particularly tough break for the youngster Manas, who was making his first world final and first appearance in a WPA World Championship final of any kind. It was a laudable run for the 19-year-old nonetheless, as he helped his veteran partner, Biado, come out of the losers’ bracket with a 4-1, 4-3, 1-4, 4-0 triumph over Syria’s Mohammad Soufi and Mohammad Aziza, before surviving Indonesia’s Irsal Nasution and Albert Januarta, 3-4, 4-3, 3-4, 4-2, 3-1, in a pulsating semis duel.
For Biado, the loss prevented him from adding another prestigious crown to his collection, which already includes two world championships in 9-ball and one each in 10-ball, mixed team, and the US Open.
