FUJAIRAH, UAE --Three Filipinos made it to the next round of the 2012 World 8-Ball championship here yesterday.

Surprisingly,  defending champion Dennis Orcollo wasn’t one of them.

Veteran Lee Vann Corteza, Carlo Biado and Roberto Gomez emerged as the remaining Filipino bets standing in the star-studded event after impressive victories in the Round-of-64 at the Fujairah Tennis and Country Club here.

Corteza, a two-time national champion back home, subdued Hong Kong’s Lee Chen Man, 9-2, Biado ousted compatriot Elmer Haya, 9-2 and Gomez toppled Austrian Mario He, 9-4, to advance to the round-of-32 of this tournament which offers $20,000 to the champion.      

Corteza, a Davao City native who has set his sights on achieving every billiard player’s dream — win a world title—, will next play Nguyen Phoc Luong of Vietnam , who brought down Amin Fekry of UAE, 9-8.   

In the next round, Biado will meet Toru Kuribayashi of Japan, who dealt Tomasz Kaplan of Poland, 9-7, while Gomez will face Mark Gray of Great Britain, who crushed Maghsoud Ali of Iran, 9-3.   

“Target kong makuha ang World crown (8-ball, 9-ball and 10-ball) para makasama ko ‘yung mga Filipino world champion,” said Corteza.   

A multiple Southeast Asian Games gold medalist, Corteza has won several big tournaments last year but still has to collect a legitimate world title.

Among his major victories last year were in the 2011 Golden Break 9-Ball Asian Invitational championship, the San Miguel Beer Oktoberfest 9-Ball Open Masters, the Philippine Bigtime Billiards Face-Off and the Manny Pacquiao International 10-ball Championship.   

His biggest achievement in a world tournament  so far was a runner-up finish to eventual champion Mika “The Iceman” Immonen of Finland in the 2009 World Ten Ball championships  at the World Trade Center in Pasay City.

On a day to forget,  Orcollo found himself packing for home after losing to Poland’s Karol Skowerski, 3-9, in the first of several Round-of-32 matches later in the evening. He got off to a quick start in the Round-of-64, beating Nasser Al Mujaibel of Kuwait, 9-5.

The 28-year- old Skowerski, who’s ranked number 4 in Poland, took a 5-0 lead in the race to 9, alternate break format. 

The Kielce native showed superb skills and was never intimidated even when Orcollo began to fight back.

“I played well and I really concentrated well the whole match,” an obviously delighted Skowerski said after the match as he was congratulated by teammates Radoslaw Babica and Tomasz Kaplan, both of whom were eliminated earlier in the day.     

“I wasn’t scared and I wasn’t nervous.” added Skowerski who joined Ko Pin-yi of Taiwan and Liu Haitao of China in the Round-of-16.

Ko, a two-time world junior champion, bested Raymund Faraon of the Philippines, 9-5.