Johann Chua has sealed success at the second staging of the Hanoi Open Pool Championship in the Vietnamese capital, overcoming Reyes Cup teammate Ko Pin-Yi 13-7 to land his maiden major accolade.
Chua realised his potential in front of thousands of passionate Vietnamese fans at the Hanoi Indoor Gymnasium, pocketing the $30,000 top prize in ideal preparation for the forthcoming inaugural Reyes Cup in Manila.
Having won gold at the SEA Games in the same country three years ago, Chua’s love affair with Vietnam continued as he capped off a sensational year that has also seen him reach the World Pool Championship semi-finals and the European Open final.
The 32-year-old from Bacolod crumbled in that European Open final against Mickey Krause and there was initial concern this time around too, but Chua recuperated and compiled five break and runs in a superb showing.
Nervy early exchanges saw both players struggle in adapting to super slick table conditions, and both missed relatively routine shots in the initial racks of the contest, but a break and run helped Chua obtain a handy 4-1 advantage.
Ko was fortunate to scupper Chua’s four-rack rally as he fluked a one-nine combination, however, Chua fired in a long six glued to the bottom rail in trademark fashion on his way to restoring his three-rack buffer at 5-2.
Chua found his stroke in the seventh rack and followed that with a perfect break off and back-to-back break and runs to lead to gain an unassailable 7-2 lead. Nevertheless, the Filipino soon left the blue two over a pocket and allowed Ko to halve that deficit to 7-4.
Ko had reduced the arrears and could have done so further, only to scratch in the middle pocket after potting the three ball as Chua gained an 8-4 lead.
A swing in momentum saw Ko claim three consecutive racks, notably break and running for the first time before executing a three-nine combination to move within one rack of his Filipino opponent, only to hand back the ascendancy after not hitting a rail.
A crucial passage of play subsequently saw Ko pull off a two ball from distance as well as an exceptional jump shot, though, the Taiwanese cueist was unable to leap successfully for a second time. Both players then missed the six ball prior to Chua taking a 10-7 lead.
Chua seized the occasion and put together his fourth break and run, only to miss an ambitious six ball. However, Ko somehow spurned a routine nine ball, which pulled the plug on his hopes as Chua moved onto the hill before break and running for the title.
Beforehand, Chua capitalised on Carlo Biado’s numerous mistakes to beat him 11-5, pulling away following closely-contested early exchanges, while Ko dismantled Jefrey Roda 11-2 in a ruthless performance.
