Alcano, Lining slip past rivals

MANILA, Philippines — World No. 2 Ronnie Alcano showed that he still has enough magic tricks left by clobbering Kuwaiti Hamzah Al Saeed, 9-5, to jumpstart his title bid in the World 9-Ball Championship at the Al Sadd Sports Club in Doha, Qatar.

Alcano, who won the 2006 edition of this tournament in Manila, will next meet Radoslaw Babica of Poland for a place in the knockout stage of the week-long event that offers $36,000 to the champion.

Other noted Filipinos who triumphed were Antonio “Nikoy” Lining and Jeffrey de Luna.

Lining routed Liu Cheng Cheih of Chinese-Taipei, 9-4, in Group P while Gomez demolished Abdulwahed Jamil Hussain of UAE, 9-4, in Group H.

Lee Van Corteza, meantime, kept his title bid alive by downing Erik Hjorliefson of Canada, 9-4 as the Filipino bets pressed their bids to dominate the tournament for the second straight year.

Corteza, ranked eighth in the world, will have to beat the loser of the Marcus Chamat-Allan Cuartero match for a chance to get into the knockout phase.

Like Gomez and Corteza, Antonio Gabica, Israel Rota, Raymund Faraon, Venancio Tanio, Francisco Felicilda, Joven Alba and Caneda Villamor won their respective matches in the loser's brackets to stay alive in the $250,000 tournament.

Gabica trounced Majed Al Zaab of UAE, 9-4, Rota waylaid Mazen Berjawi of Libya, 9-6, Faraonoutclassed Hamzah Al Saeed of Iran, 9-2, Tanio dismantled Ameen Fekree of UAE, 9-4, Felicilda clobbered Dennis Grabe of Estonia, 9-8, Alba outwitted Bruno Muratore of Italy, 9-6, and Villamor nipped Jon Grimley of New Zealand, 9-1.

Defending champion Django Bustamante, Efren "Bata" Reyes, World No. 1 Dennis Orcollo and Jeff de Luna won their opening matches the other day.

Both Reyes and Bustamante encountered some harrowing moments before winning.

Bustamante blew a 5-2 lead but still won, 9-7, over Caneda Villamor.

Reyes, on the other hand, rallied mightily from a 2-6 deficit to prevail over English Mark Gray, 9-3.

Jonas Terrado, Manila Bulletin