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Alcano Reaches The Final
RONATO Alcano is only one match away from winning the biggest competition in pool.
Alcano, the last player from the home country left in the tournament, will now compete in the final of the 2006 Philippines World Pool Championship after defeating China's Li He-wen 11-8 in an epic semi-final.
The first three racks went in Alcano's favour but Li won four of the next five to tie the match at 4-4 but the Filipino then did enough to stay at least one rack in front for the majority of the contest.
At 10-8 Alcano looked to have a dreadful mistake when he scratched and Li ran through the balls until he lost position moving from the 8 to the 9.
Li tried to make up for the error with a softly-struck shot but it just left the 9-ball hanging over the pocket for a shot that Alcano could surely not miss. In the end he did not have to make his final shot as Li offered his hand and conceded the rack and therefore the match.
Alcano, whose previous best performance in the World Championship was reaching the last 64 in 2005, will now meet German Ralf Souquet, the 1996 champion, in the final. It is a remarkable story for Alcano as he was only one rack away from failing to make it out of the first round.
Defeats against Vietnam's Luong Chi-dung 8-7 and an 8-3 loss against German Christian Reimering in the group phase left Alcano on the brink of elimination.
However, he gained some luck with the other results in his section and it meant his clash with Marcel Martens of the Netherlands was a winner-takes-all affair.
Due to the number of racks he had conceded, Alcano had to win by a score of 8-0, 8-1 or 8-2 to qualify and he managed this with a thrilling, nerve-racking 8-2 triumph. He was one of only two players to qualify for round two after only winning one out of their three games and was ranked as the player with the worst record after round one.
That meant he played Roberto Gomez, who had the best results of anyone in the group stages, but Alcano showed his class with a 10-1 victory. After that, his route to the final has been extremely difficult.
In the last 32 he beat Filipino legend Efren Reyes, before he recorded wins against 2005 runner-up Kuo Po-cheng and 2005 winner Wu Chia-ching to take his place in the semi-finals against Li He-wen.
Now in the final, Alcano realises he has the hopes of a nation resting on his shoulders tomorrow.
He said: "I'm very happy to reach the final of this tournament, here in Manila. It was a very tough match as he is a very good player.
"He committed three scratches and was very unfortunate but I was very confident going from 5-5 to 8-5 and there was less pressure on me when it went 8-5. I will try to capitalise on his break and I hope the match will go my way. I must get the first lag.
"There is big pressure for me but I want to show respect to my opponent and I hope the crowd respect Mr Souquet tomorrow.
"This is the biggest moment of my career and I'm hoping for a big victory."
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