FILIPINO hall of fame cue artist Carlo Biado on Saturday (Philippine time) was crowned the champion of the 2026 US Open One-Pocket Championship in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In an all-Filipino final, Biado defeated Roland Garcia, 5-1, to clinch the championship after what the champion described as a 10-hour competition.
It was a rematch between Biado and Garcia, as both faced off in the semifinals, where, after five hours, Biado lost to Garcia in a close battle, 3-4.
Biado then faced off against Tony “T-Rex” Chohan in the loser’s bracket, winning 3-0 and a rematch against Garcia.
On his Facebook page, Biado said it was worth the 10 hours of competition.
“Sa wakas! (Finally!) After 10 hours straight,” Biado wrote.
He also said in the video accompanying this post that he will take a break before competing in several other tournaments, which will also include playing in a tournament with fellow Filipino Rubilen Amit.
Garcia also congratulated Biado and said he was also happy about his performance.
“Congrats to the Black Tiger [Biado] for winning the one pocket event ... he played really solid in the finals, happy to play [against] him in the finals, another runner up [finish] for me,” Garcia wrote.
“So happy with my performance on this trip, I just need to work on a few more things in my game,” he added.
Biado will head to St. Louis, Missouri for the 2026 Bank Pool Masters Showdown, which takes place next month.
Meanwhile, Biado rose to the No. 3 spot based on the World Pool Association's (WPA) released world ranking.
This is an improvement from his ninth place in the previous WPA list.
Albin Ouschan of Austria tops the list, followed by Wojciech Szewczyk of Poland.