TEAM Asia was in crisp form, taking a commanding 4-0 whitewash of Team Rest of the World after day one in its title retention bid in the Reyes Cup 2025 at Ninoy Aquino Stadium on Thursday.
Determined to protect the home court anew in the Asian version of the Mosconi Cup, the home team offered no letups, as they seized control of this race-to-11 event.
Reigning world champion Carlo Biado set the tone for Team Asia, pouncing on Francisco Sanchez Ruiz' miss on the 8 in the opening rack before capping off the team match with the runout to take the methodical 5-1 victory.
He sustained that groove in the singles match, pouncing on Moritz Neuhausen's errors to take the 5-3 win.
Biado, however, still had his hitches, as he made three dry breaks that kept the German in the game. Neuhausen, though, also had a dry break in rack 8 and lost the safety battle on the 1, leading to Biado going for the jugular with the 1-9 combo.
Dream start for Team Asia
The duo of Aloysius Yapp and AJ Manas also got on the board for Team Asia with a 5-2 win in their doubles match against Sanchez Ruiz and Jayson Shaw.
Yapp, the reigning Reyes Cup MVP, was actually shaky in the contest, as he missed his shot on the 3. But Shaw also committed a miscue of his own with a bad positioning on the 8 leading to FSR fumbling the bank and opening the window for the Asians to pot the last two balls.
Johann Chua put the exclamation point in a dream start for Team Asia, as his tandem with Duong Quoc Hoang pulled off the tense 5-4 triumph in their doubles match against the American duo of Fedor Gorst and Skylar Woodward.
Team ROW fought back from a 3-1 deficit and forced the hill-hill affair setting up the winner-take-all rack 9.
Woodward missed on the 2 and almost fluked it on the other corner pocket. Duong's shot on the 3 rattled out but that up as a blessing as the cue got behind three balls and led to Gorst completely missing the ball committing the foul, opening the window for the Asians to close the day out.
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