Sunday, April 27, 2008

SOUQUET GRABS 8-BALL CROWN FROM ALCANO

RALF "Kaiser" Souquet of Germany waited two years to avenge his loss to Ronato Alcano in the finals of 2006 Philippine WPA World 9-Ball Championship in Manila.
Souquet crushed Alcano, 13-9, to emerge over-all champion in the just concluded 2008 Damas World 8-Ball Championship at the Expo Center in Fujairah City, United Arab Emirates, on Friday.

The win was worth $60,000 for Souquet, while Alcano settled for $20,000 in second place prize money. Ralf also follow the foot-step of the past double world champions in the likes of Alcano, Wu Chia-ching of Taiwan and hall of famer Efren "Bata" Reyes.

Statistic showed that Ralf had only 3 dry breaks and no errors while Ronnie tallied 3 errors and 3 successful breaks.

Actually, Souquet raced a quick 3-0 lead after he took advantage of two dry breaks from Alcano. Then he stretched his lead to five racks at 8-3, but Alcano got back to the table after a dry break from Souquet in rack 12 to run that rack and then broke and ran the next rack to get back to 8-5. After a break and run by Souquet in rack 14, Alcano mounted a comeback to climb back within one rack at 9-8.

Souquet broke dry in rack 18, but Alcano was unable to finish off the rack and Souquet moved ahead 10-8. Alcano broke and ran the next rack to get back within one rack, but Souquet answered with a break and run in rack 20 to once again take a 2 rack lead.

Alcano looked ready to get back within one rack again in rack 21, but a miss on the 8-ball was his final mistake and Souquet ran that rack and then broke and ran the next rack for the tournament win.

Other Filipino who participated in the World 8-Ball were Dennis Orcollo, Warren Kiamco, Antonio Gabica, Jeffrey de Luna, Roberto Gomez, Elvis Calasang, Joven Bustamante, Israel Rota and Alan Cuartero.

contributed by MARLON BERNARDINO, edited by jovie sison

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