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2013 WPA World 9-Ball Championships
Qatar Billiards & Snooker Federation
Al-Arabi Sports Club
New Salata
Doha
Qatar
www.alarabi.qa
www.olympic.qa
www.qbsf.net - stage 2 draw (pdf) - live scoring
www.wpa-pool.com - live scoring
www.alkass.net/live_plus.aspx
www.onthehill.jp

7 - 13 September 2013

All photography �Takayama Takao www.onthehill.jp - and courtesy of the WPA.
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QATAR BASED FILIPINO ANTONIO GABICA STORMS INTO THE SEMI-FINALS, JOINS BIADO, HOHMANN AND BOYES IN THE FINAL FOUR OF THE WORLD 9-BALL CHAMPIONSHIP

Over a 15-plus year professional career, Antonio Gabica has often been viewed by Filipino pool fans as an extremely talented player who has a tendency to wither when faced with big time pressure situations. But for the man affectionately known as �Gaga� to his fellow Filipinos, that once signature trait now sits forever buried deep in the Qatari desert.

Displaying masterful, career-defining cueing prowess, and the heart of a proud lion, Gabica notched three straight pressure cooker victories today, and barged into the semi-finals of the 2013 World 9-ball Championship. There he joins three other red hot players in the race to pool�s pantheon, among them fellow Filipino Carlo Biado, Germany�s Thorsten Hohmann, and Great Britain�s Karl Boyes.

Each race to 11, alternate break semi-final will feature the Philippines versus Europe. In one semi-final, Gabica will face off against Boyes. In the other semi-final, Biado will do battle with Hohmann. Both semi-final matches will be played simultaneously at the Al Arabi Sports Indoor Stadium beginning at 1:30pm Doha time(GMT +3.) The race to 13, alternate break final will begin at 5pm.

If today�s incredible action is any indication, the Al Arabi will be positively rocking on Friday. Having two Filipinos in the semi-finals ensures that a huge crowd of overseas Filipinos, whose population numbers close to 200,000 in Qatar, will surely pack the 1000 seat arena. On top of this, Filipino pool fans are notoriously boisterous when it comes to rooting for their man. Both Hohmann and Boyes will no doubt be up against a wave of fan emotion, and will have to bear down extra hard to stay composed.

For the 41 year old Gabica, there�s an added home-court advantage in that he has lived and worked in Qatar for the last four years, working as an assistant coach for the Qatari national pool team. Gabica, although playing under the Philippine flag, wears the colors of Qatar and is beloved by the Qataris involved in the local pool scene, and treated as one of their own. Both Filipinos and Qataris in the crowd today were cheering wildly for Gabica and at one point were even chanting his nickname, �Gaga! Gaga!�

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