Alcano, Gabica, Lining hurdle WPA 9-Ball foes

MANILA, Philippines - Former double world champion Ronnie Alcano, Antonio Gabica and Antonio Lining beat their respective rivals to advance in the 2010 WPA World Pool 9-Ball Championships at the Qatar Billiards and Snooker Federation hall in Doha, Qatar Wednesday.

Alcano whipped Ahmed Hassan of Iraq, 9-1, to arrange a second round clash with David Alcaide of Spain, who downed Jason Theron of Republic of South Africa, 9-6.

Gabica, a former Asian Games gold medalist, held off Nicolas Otterman of Germany, 9-7, to set up a duel with compatriot Francisco Felicilda, who nipped India’s Muhammad Zulfikri, 9-8.

The Japan-based Lining, on the other hand, thwarted Corey Deuel of the US, 9-7. He takes on Khalid Al Kamale of United Arab Emirates, who edged Martin Kempter of Austria, 9-8, in the next round.

Venancio Tanio defeated Holger Gries of Germany, 9-5, to arrange a second round duel with Liu Haitao of China, who upset former 9-Ball and 8-Ball world champion Efren “Bata” Reyes, 9-5, in the first round of group stage matches.

Reyes, meanwhile, bounced back and eliminated Gries, 9-7, in the losers’ bracket of the tournament, which offers a total prize pot of $250,000.

Marlon Manalo downed Waleed Majid of Qatar, 9-7, Jeffrey de Luna carved out a 9-6 victory over Richard Jones of Great Britain.

Manalo mixes it up with Francis Crevier of Canada in the next round.

In other results, Artem Koshovoj of Ukraine booted out reigning World 9-Ball champion Daryl Peach of Great Britain, 9-8, while reigning world 8-Ball champion Ralf Souquet of Germany rebounded with a 9-1 rout of Carlo Castro of Nicaragua.

Joven Alba, who turned back Manalo in the first round, bowed to Scott Higgins of Great Britain, 9-4.

Former world No.1 Francisco “Django” Bustamante was set to play Toru Kuribayashi of Japan while 2010 World Pool Masters titlist Dennis Orcullo was pitted against Chris Melling of Great Britain.

Other pairings pit 2010 US Open 10-Ball champion Lee Vann Corteza against Christian Reimering of Great Britain, Allan Cuartero versus Niels Feijen of the Netherlands, Oliver Medenilla versus Fahad Al Barak of Kingdon of Saudi Arabia, Israel Rota against Nguyen Phoc Long of Vietnam and Raymund Faraon versus Nick Van den Berg of the Netherlands.