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| Duong Quoc Hoang raises his cue after beating Eklent Kaci for Team Asia's second point in the Reyes Cup. Matchroom Pool |
MANILA—Team Asia made a strong head start to the inaugural Reyes Cup after taking a 3-2 lead against Team Europe after the opening night which spilled through early Wednesday at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
Aloysius Yapp emerged as the biggest winner of Day 1 as he won two of the three victories for Team Asia.
The Singaporean ace teamed up with Chinese Taipei's Ko Pin-Yi to beat the Spanish duo of Francisco Sanchez Ruiz and David Alcaide, 5-2, in the first doubles match for Team Asia's first point.
Yapp closed the opening phase with a 5-4 win against Jayson Shaw, breaking a 2-2 tie.
Yapp cleaned up the final rack without letting Shaw take a shot to win the thriller.
The other Asian win came from Duong Quoc Hoang, who beat Eklent Kaci, 5-3, in the first singles match.
The host country tandem of Johann Chua and Carlo Biado has yet to win in the Reyes Cup by themselves as they were on the wrong end of blown early advantages that led to Europe's first two points of the race-to-11 battle.
The biggest heartbreak came right at the very first match of the Reyes Cup, the 5-on-5 team game, where Team Asia could not close out Team Europe despite zooming to a 4-0 lead and let their rivals complete the reverse sweep to go 1-0 up.
After the wins of the Ko-Yapp combo and Duong came Chua and Biado's clash against Shaw and Mickey Krause where the Filipinos surged to a 3-0 lead.
However, a golden break from Shaw in Rack 4 sparked Team Europe's comeback to steal the point from Chua and Biado.
Shaw's luck ran out when Yapp got a perfect position on the 2-ball in the final rack after pocketing the 1 and 5-balls after the break.
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