Alcano banners RP bid in Jakarta 9-ball

World double pool champion Ronnie Alcano heads a crack four-man RP contingent competing against the finest players in the region when the Guinness 9-ball Tour unfolds this weekend at The Sultan Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Alcano, winner of the world 8-ball and 9-ball championships, tries to add the event to his growing list of victories although the soft-spoken, soft-breaking Filipino champion is expected to encounter stiff competition against the likes of Taiwan’s former world 9-ball champions Chao Fong-Pang and Wu Chia-Ching and a formidable cast of local Indonesian opponents determined to take home the 2007 tour’s first trophy in front of a hometown crowd.

Joining Alcano in the hunt for the top $15,000 purse are newly crowned Philippine Open champion Lee Van Corteza, Asian Games silver medalist Jeffrey de Luna and World Pool League champion Dennis Orcollo.

The Jakarta leg kicks off a five-stage series with the top 10 players gaining automatic entry into the WPA World Pool Championship in November. Draw will be held on Thursday with the preliminary matches to start on Friday. The quarterfinals will be held Saturday while the semis and the final matches will be played on Sunday starting at 12 noon.

The arrival of Guinness as the new title sponsor has given the Tour a huge boost with the total prize money doubled to $320,000.

The second leg will be held in Kaohsiung, Taiwan in May, while Kuala Lumpur will host the third stage in June. The event hops to Singapore in July for the fourth leg with the final leg set in Bali in September.