MANILA, Philippines – Jefrey Roda will be ending the year as a champion and on the radar of the rest of the field in the pool pro tour.
The 24-year-old Roda bagged his first-ever ranking title in the World Nine-ball Tour by copping the Chinese Taipei Open on Wednesday, December 18, at the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park in Taipei City.
The unheralded Roda overcame home bet and former world champion Ko Pin-yi in the finals of the event that drew 128 participants playing for the total prize money amounting to $82,000.
Roda appeared to have gained some headway when he opened an 8-6 lead in the race-to-13 finals before Ko — the 2015 world nine-ball and world 10-ball champion — showed the Filipino some elite shotmaking as the veteran Taiwanese swept the next five racks to go up 11-8.
But Roda displayed remarkable composure for a young player, grinding his way back into the match by winning the next four racks to get to the hill first at 12-11.
Roda then hit the luckiest shot of the finals when he made a golden break at the 24th rack to end the match and crown himself the Chinese Taipei Open champion.
It was a fitting ending to the three-day event for Roda, who went on a giant-killing spree in a tough field which featured five of the top 10 players in the world nine-ball rankings, including former world No. 1 Francisco Sanchez Ruiz and former World Masters champion David Alcaide of Spain, 2019 world 10-ball and 2023 US Open champion Ko Ping-Chung of Chinese Taipei, 2024 Hanoi Open Johann Chua, and International Open champion Aloysius Yapp of Singapore.
Roda had a shaky start in the knockout round when he narrowly defeated Edward Koyongian of Indonesia in a hill-hill battle of nerves in the last 32. He followed it up with a 10-4 triumph over Wang Hung-Hsiang of Chinese Taipei in the last 16.
People finally started to take notice of Roda when he scored a masterful 11-3 win over compatriot Chua to advance to the semifinals against Sanchez Ruiz.
The Spaniard, who won the US Open and the World Eight-ball Championship in 2022 and the World Nine-ball Championship in 2023, found himself on the wrong end of a comprehensive beating in the semis as Roda jumped to a 10-0 lead.
A stunned Sanchez Ruiz avoided a shutout when he won the next two racks before he got mercifully eliminated by Roda, 11-2. – Rappler.com