Billiards Sports23 Editorial 2 min read
Manas Beats Maciol 11-10 to Reach Qatar World Cup Final
AJ Manas beat 2024 champion Daniel Macioł 11-10 after trailing 6-1 and 8-10, and faces Joshua Filler for the $100,000 title tonight in Doha.
The last Filipino standing will play for the title. AJ Manas overturned a 6-1 deficit and then survived three racks from defeat to beat 2024 champion Daniel Macioł 11-10 in a hill-hill semi-final at the Ezdan Palace Hotel on Thursday, setting up a Qatar World Cup 10-Ball final against Joshua Filler tonight.
Revenge, the hard way
Macioł had beaten Manas 9-4 in the Stage 1 winners' qualification round earlier in the week — the defeat that sent the Filipino down the losers' side and began this improbable run. When they met again on Table 16 with a final at stake, the Pole looked set to repeat the dose: he took six of the first seven racks and later reached the hill at 10-8.
Manas never folded. He had already clawed back to 8-6, and when Macioł moved within a rack of the final, the Filipino won the last three racks of the match to close it out 11-10.
A run built from the losers' side
The semi-final was Manas's fifth straight win in elimination matches, and the route says plenty about the week he has had:
| Round | Result |
|---|---|
| Stage 1 qualification | Lost 4-9 to Macioł — sent to the losers' side |
| Last 64 | Beat Bashar Hussain 11-3 |
| Last 32 | Beat Mustafa Alnar 11-5 |
| Last 16 | Beat Jundel Mazon 11-5 — all-Filipino tie |
| Quarter-final | Beat Hsieh Chia Chen 11-8 |
| Semi-final | Beat Daniel Macioł 11-10 — from 1-6 and 8-10 down |
Seven Filipinos reached the last 16 this week and Manas is the only one still standing. Defending champion Jonas Magpantay, No. 2 seed Carlo Biado, Miguel Salvilla, Rocky Tullao and Mazon all fell along the way, leaving him to carry the flag alone.
Filler ends the world No. 1's bid
On Table 17, No. 5 seed Joshua Filler beat world No. 1 Wojciech Szewczyk 11-9 in a match that turned on errors rather than brilliance. Rack-by-rack tracking showed Szewczyk missing nine times, including the late error that denied the crowd a second hill-hill finish. Filler — who ended Salvilla's breakout run in the quarter-finals — is the only seeded player left in the field.
Tonight: race to 13
Manas vs Filler breaks at 5:30 p.m. Doha time (10:30 p.m. in Manila) on Table 17 — a race to 13 worth $100,000 to the champion and $40,000 to the runner-up. A first-time winner of this event is guaranteed: neither man has lifted the Qatar World Cup.
For the Philippines the stakes reach beyond one player. Magpantay won this title as a qualifier last year, and Manas — having already outlasted every bigger name left in the draw — is one evening away from keeping the crown in Filipino hands for a second straight year.
Results verified against official QBSF live scoring via rack9pool.com and rack-by-rack tracking data on Inside Spin, cross-checked with eyewitness reports on AZBilliards. Cover image: file photo of Carlo Biado by Puddin Tain via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.
