Filipino World Champion

Mabuhay!!! Another Filipino put the Philippines in the world map, he did it twice actually when he won the 9 ball world championship in Manila last year. He won the title of World 8-Ball championship by beating his fellow Kabayan Dennis Orcollo at Fujairah's Bustan centre.

Ronnie Alcano during the final of the eight-ball pool

championship in Fujairah. Fuad Ali/Gulf News

Alcano crowned new world champion in eight-ball contest
By Fuad Ali, Staff Reporter, Gulf News

Fujairah, UAE: Ronnie Alcano has been crowned the new World 8-Ball champion after putting in a confident display to beat fellow Filipino Dennis Orcollo at Fujairah's Bustan centre yesterday.
A large Filipino crowd turned up to watch the final, full in the knowledge that the winner will be one of their compatriot players.

A delighted Alcano told Gulf News: "I'm really happy to win here on my first participation especially coming on the back of winning the world title in the 9-ball equivalent."
The match, which was expected to be a closely fought affair, started off with both players neck to neck.

After 5 games the score was 3-2 in favour of Ronnie Alcano, the latter then hit top form and seemingly almost decided the outcome of the match by opening a five-game lead on Dennis Orcollo at 7-2.

At this stage, Alcano looked to be the more confident player of the two, at times seeming to play at twice the speed of his opponent.

In truth, the more pensive Orcollo was given very few opportunities by a slick Alcano.
Orcollo soon managed to regain some of his composure to cut Alcano's lead to just 2 games, winning the next three consecutive games.

Orcollo's mini-revival was momentarily halted as Alcano took an 8-5 lead, but the match was soon back on balance as Orcollo won the next two games to make the score 8-7, completing a brave recovery.

Eventually, though, the in-form Alcano regained the initiative and powered home to a deserved 11-8 win to take the world title.