Manalo Claims his First Blaze Title at Castle BilliardsBlaze 9-Ball Tour /Billiards News/ East Rutherford, NJby Rick Davis/Inside POOL Magazine"Marvelous Marlon" Manalo, the runner-up to the IPT’s multi-million-dollar North American Open 8-Ball Championship in July, came back from a quarterfinal loss to win the Blaze 9-Ball Tour’s nineteenth stop. Held at Castle Billiards in East Rutherford, NJ, the two-day, double-points stop pulled in 42 entries for the August 12-13 weekend.Manalo faced off against fellow IPT pro and Blaze Tour points leader Mike Davis in a grueling match that Davis ultimately won double-hill. The other half of the winners' side showed less eye candy for the crowd, even though Teddy Garrahan defeated Joey Kong by a solid 9-4 margin. Garrahan then faced Davis in the hot seat match, and before long Davis showed why he leads the tour, as he completely dominated the match with a 9-1 score.
Action then progressed on the one-loss side as Manalo faced Kong. Early on it seemed to be anyone's game, but then Manalo decided he was ready to continue and eliminated Kong 7-4. Manalo, with only one match between him and the finals, gave Garrahan his second thrashing, eliminating him 7-0.With the rematch on, no time was wasted as Davis and Manalo clashed. Before long it was clear that something was different, and their previous hill-hill match morphed into an 11-2 victory for Manalo, making his first visit to the Blaze Tour a success. Results:1st Marlon Manalo2nd Mike Davis3rd Teddy Garrahan4th Joey Kong5th Gerard SorianoNoel Bensurto7th Rob HeartScott Evans
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