Orcollo, Alcano enter Final 8

 MANILA, Philippines - Dennis Orcollo and Ronnie Alcano made a big fightback from an early three-rack deficit, upending Russians Ruslan Chinakhov and Konstantin Stepanov, 8-3, and boosting the possibility of an all-Filipino finale in the PartyCasino.net World Cup of Pool at The Annex of the SM North Edsa Mall in Quezon City last night.

Getting to the table on the fourth rack, Orcollo and Alcano swept the Russians in the next eight racks in an amazing victory lining them up against Poland in the quarterfinals of the elite event presented by Matchroom Sport in cooperation with local partner Solar Sports.

Poland’s Radoslaw Babica and Mateusz Sniegocki pulled the rug from under the highly fancied Taiwanese tandem of Yang Ching-shun and Lai Chia-hsiung, 8-5, to make the quarters earlier in the day.

“We did a good job in this game than in our previous match against Thailand. Hopefully, we keep on going and get a shot at the championship which we can offer to the country,” said Orcollo.

“You really feel tremendous pressure playing before your countrymen. But we hope we can deliver. We’ll all be happy if it’s an all-Filipino final,” said Alcano.

The pair of Efren “Bata” Reyes and Francisco “Django” Bustamante joined the US tandem of Rodney Morris and Shane Van Boening in an early entry into the Final Eight Thursday.

Holland, England, China and Germany were the other teams which made the quarters last night.

Holland ousted Japan, 8-4; England eliminated Spain, 8-6; China eased out Finland, 8-3; and Germany knocked out France, 8-4.

It’s England versus RP-B, Holland versus Germany, and China against the United States in the other quarter pairings.

Working with great table management, Babica and Sniegocki came through with a followup on their 8-0 whitewashing of Belgium’s Serge Das and Pascal Budo Thursday.

“We had our share of errors but we’re enjoying the game, we’re enjoying the competition,” said Babica after their upset of the seventh-seeded Taiwanese team.

Fast-rising pool stars Li He-wen and Fu Jian-bo of China once again pulled one over Finnish masters Markus Juva and Mika Immonen, 8-3, to also make the quarters.

The Chinese repeated over the Finnish in a rematch of their 2007 World Cup title confrontation, fashioning out an emotional win.

Germany, featuring the formidable pair of Ralf Souquet and Thorsten Hohmann, clobbered France to stay in the hunt for the coveted championship in the event being aired live on Solar Sports and C/S 9.

“We didn’t perform the way we wanted to. I missed two balls and Thorsten missed one and misjudged a few but we were lucky that France gave us a chance to come back,” said Souquet, a former World 9-Ball champion like his partner Hohmann.

The Chinese also came from behind in beating the Finnish in their match marred by a heated dispute between the two teams on a no-call by referee Cielo Lopez on one crucial play on the eighth rack.

A review of the video tape affirmed Lopez’s decision, and the Chinese apologized. Lopez was the same referee that called a controversial foul on Italy, helping Reyes and Bustamante to advance to the quarters Thursday night.

Li and Fu salvaged the rack for a 5-3 lead, then rode the momentum, winning the next three racks to eliminate Juva and Immonen.

China and Finland figured in an epic battle the last time won by the former at 11-10.

Aching for revenge, the Finnish took the first two racks but yielded the next four and failed to recover.