Chua advances to US Open Pool Championship semifinals

Filipino pool player Johann Chua is now the last Filipino standing in the US Open Pool Championship after defeating players from Serbia and the Netherlands on Friday, August 22.

Chua won against Aleksa Pecelj of Serbia with a score of 10-7 and Niels Feijen of the Netherlands with a score of 10-2 to advance to the semifinals.

Michael Baoanan narrowly lost to defending champion Fedor Gorst, missing out on advancing to the final four by a single rack in their closely contested match that ended 10-9.

Johann Chua will now face Fedor Gorst in the semifinals, with the winner moving on to compete against either Aloysius Yapp of Singapore or Ko Pin Yi of Chinese Taipei for the title.

Chua is already guaranteed a minimum prize of $25,000 (over P1.4 million) as a semifinalist and aims to win the top prize of $100,000 (nearly P5.7 million).

Former champions Fedor Gorst, Joshua Filler, and Jayson Shaw are also still competing in the tournament, adding to its competitive nature.