DENNIS ORCOLLO

Seventh seed Taiwanese Chia-Hsiung Lai and Chiang Shun Yang held off a spirited comeback of Singapore’s Toh Lian Han and Kung-Kwang Chan, 8-6, on Thursday to reach the Round of 16 of the PartyCasino.net World Cup of Pool at the SM City North EDSA in Quezon City.

Lai and Yang, both semifinalists of the world 9-ball championships, squandered a 6-3 lead as the Singaporeans tied the count at 6-all, before they slowly came back with superb pocketing to nail the win that forged them a quarterfinal tiff with the winner between Poland and Belgium on Friday at 3 p.m.

Meantime, Dennis Orcollo and Ronnie Alcano joined the other Philippines pair of Efren “Bata” Reyes and Francisco “Django” Bustamante in the Last 16 by scraping past unheralded

Thai rivals Nitiwat Kanjanasri and Surathep Phoochalam, 8-5, late Wednesday night.

Heavily-favored to win being the second seeds, Orcollo and Alcano, however, found it hard to ease past the Thais who were seeded second to last.