Alcano on top of the world

What was dubbed Thrilla in Manila II ended up as a November Murder to Remember pulled off by a cold assassin named Ronnie "Calamba" Alcano.

Alcano came out in the match of his life cool, clever and marvelous, and conquered the world with an emphatic 17-11 triumph over Germany’s Ralf Souquet at the close of the 2006 World Pool Championship at the PICC yesterday.

In his most magnificent form the entire tourney, Alcano completely outclassed the stunned one-time WPC titlist, carving out a dream finish that titillated the home crowd and sent the losing finalist in tears.

"I was blessed," said Alcano as he became only the second Filipino to rule the rich, prestigious event after Efren "Bata" Reyes in 1999. Alex Pagulayan won in 2004 while representing Canada.

Alcano said his steady game coupled with some luck spelled the difference in his six-rack triumph over Souquet — considered by pool experts as the most lopsided in WPC finals.

For the record, the biggest winning margin in a WPC finale was nine hacked out by Taiwanese Chao Fong-pang in his 17-6 rout of Mexico’s Ismael Paez in 2000. The winner’s break, however, was enforced then.

Alcano showed dominating performance under the alternate-break format (considered more fair for both players), winning the lag, jumping to a 3-0 lead and enjoying a margin as big as eight at 14-6.

"I was thinking if I win the lag and take control early, I would have a good chance to win. I already felt comfortable when I took a 12-5 lead although I knew I still had to play with caution," said Alcano.

He kept a comfortable margin up to the end, finishing the match on the 28th rack with a tricky 1-9 combination on a tight situation to wild applause from the crowd.

"Alcano deserves the title. He beat big names on the way to the finals then he beat me," said Souquet, who broke down in front of international television. "Everything went his way but he did play better than me. I made dumb mistakes," Souquet added.

Alcano went home $100,000 (roughly P5 million) richer aside from gaining admiration from Filipino pool fans and respect from rivals and peers in the billiards world. Souquet settled for the $40,000 runner-up prize.

"I don’t know what to do with this money. This is the first time I won this much," said the reed-thin, toothless pool master who failed to make it past the Round of 64 in his first two WPC stints.

"This win may well change my life, for the better. One thing, I may no longer go through qualifiers since I’m now a world champion," he also said.

He said he’s no immediate plans although he would have loved to play for the country in the coming Asian Games. Like Reyes and the other Filipino pool big guns, Alcano wasn’t able to join the elimination for the RP team due to conflict with their IPT Tour stints.

It was like a fairytale ride for Alcano who barely made it past in the knockout stage, then crushed superstars Reyes, Kuo Po-cheng, Wu Chia-ching and Suoquet in annexing the crown.