Team Philippines bucked an opening game loss to turn back Russia, 4-1, to reach the finals of the first World Team Pool Cup Championship being held at the Hall 13 Hannover Exhibition Grounds in Germany.

The setback of former World Pool Association 9-Ball and 8-Ball champion Ronnie Alcano and Asian champion Marlon Manalo in the first 8-Ball Scotch Doubles served as an eye-opener to the RP squad.

Alcano and Manalo absorbed a heart-breaking 3-6 defeat to Juniors World Champion Ruslan Chinakov and Roman Pruchay enabling Russia to gain a 1-0 advantage.

“It [the loss] was a lesson learned for us. We don’t need to be confident at all times mostly in this stage of the tournament where every team, every player wants to be in the finals,” said Alcano.

The Philippines, however, came out firing in the remaining events when former world No. 1 Dennis Orcollo and Warren Kiamco retaliated with a 6-4 win over Konstantin Stepanov and Egor Plishkin in the second 8-Ball Scotch Doubles to tie the series to 1-1.

It was a double celebration in the 9-Ball events as Southeast Asian games gold medalist Lee Vann Corteza and Antonio Lining scored a similar 6-4 win over Pruchay.

Russia fielded Pruchay in the first and second 9-Ball games. Alcano finally nailed it for the Philippines following his striking 7-1 demolition of Chinakov in the 10-Ball event.

The Philippines will be facing an equally talented England Team bannered by world champions Daryl Peach and Darren Appleton.

England defeated Greece in the other semis pairing of the event which offers $100,000 cash purse to the champion team.

--Emil C. Noguera

The Manila Times