‘Toughest field so far’

THE field is made even tougher as the semifinal round of the Class A division of the Sun.Star Superbalita 9-Ball Challenge breaks racks today at the SM City-Cebu Trade Hall.

With former two-time world champion Ronnie “The Volcano” Alcano, who also won the 2005 edition, in the field, Ricky Zerna will be up for a stiff competition in his title defense.

Aside from Alcano, seeded players Gandy “Yang-Yang” Valle and Jundel Mazon and two upstarts Carlo Biado and Johann Chua also vowed to make Zerna’s title retention bid a ton harder.

“Honestly, wa gyud ko tarong practice kay nibakasyon man ko sa Mabinay (Negros Oriental) bag-o lang ko nibalik sa Manila. But I’ll do my best to keep the title,” Zerna said during the press conference at SM City-Cebu Trade Hall Conference Room yesterday.

In 10 years of the Sun.Star Superbalita billiard tournament, nobody has won the tournament for two straight years that is why Valle, the 2008 champion, vowed to make it even harder for Zerna to win the title this year.

“We will try to stop Ricky from winning his third title. No one has won the title back-to-back. I played in this tournament for 10 straight years not missing a single year and this year is tougher,” Valle stressed.

The only two-time winners of the event are Zerna (2009, 2011) and Dennis Orcullo (2003 and 2006).

Also present during the press conference were Sun.Star Cebu’s Bayani Garcia, AVP for Marketing Cosette Fernandez, Ads and Promo Manager Roselle Reyes and representatives from SM City-Cebu and Crossover FM.

Alcano, however, expected young guns Biado and Chua, who have been part of the tournament for the past four years, to make waves in the tournament.

Biado and Chua will have to face other hopefuls from Davao, Bacolod, Iloilo and local players in the Class A qualifying round that started yesterday.

Only 12 players from the qualifying round will advance to the semifinal round today against Zerna, Alcano, Valle and Mazon for a shot at the P120,000 top prize.

Meanwhile, tournament director Dickoy Ramirez said Charles Casona of Cebu Technological University-Carmen Campus, Jeffrey Fontanarado of University of Cebu Lapu-Lapu-Mandaue Campus, Louie James Boholst also of UC-LM and June Vincent Ababon of Salazar Colleges of Science and Technology advanced to the semifinal round of the collegiate division.