Alcano off to hot start, crushes obscure rival

Ronnie Alcano made short work of little-known rival Carlos Talavera, scoring an 8-1 rout of the Guatemalan in the opening round of the 2008 World 8-Ball Championship yesterday at the Amir Billiards Club in Fujairah City, United Arab Emirates.

Alcano, the title holder in the rich tournament, raced to 6-0 lead before yielding one rack then stringing up the next two to advance to the next round either against Chinese Liu Haitao and local bet Omran Saleem.

Elvis Calasang was the only other Filipino bet who started his campaign here yesterday. He was playing Korean Ryu Seung Woo in Group B at presstime.

Ten Filipino pool masters made the tournament proper with Jeff de Luna, Warren Kiamco and Allan Cuartero finding them drawn together in Group F.

Roberto Gomez is in Group D, Antonio Gabica in Group E, Joven Bustamante in Group G and Dennis Orcollo and Israel Rota in Group H.

De Luna opens his campaign against former World Pool champion Ralf Souquet of Germany today. Cuartero is up against Ibrahim Bin Amir of Malaysia and Kiamco against Amine Ouahbi in one of the toughest groups in the tourney.

Bustamante may have to hurdle Corey Deuel in Group B, Orcollo has to contend with Oliver Ortmann in Group H and Gomez has a tough assignment in Shane Van Boening in Group D.

Alcano, looking to become the first player to defend a major title in over a decade, displayed his pool savvy early against Talavera.

The Calamba, Laguna native was so impressive, losing only one rack in an alternate-break format.

Other players in Group A are Bernard Kiat, Mohammed El Assai, Naif Al Jeweni and Jianbo Fu.

The double-elimination format is in use in the group matches with four players from each group advancing to the knockout stage.