THE TOP guns played according to form with Ronnie Alcano and Dennis Orcollo leading the Philippine charge after Day 1 of the 2011 World 10-Ball Championships at the World Trade Center.
Former world champions both, Alcano and Orcollo hardly broke up a sweat in seeing off separate foreign foes, losing just a combined seven racks to move within another win of making the 64-man, knockout stages.
Alcano, the last Filipino to win a world title on Philippine soil, scored a 9-4 victory over Kuwaiti Khaled Al Mutairi, while Orcollo, the former World No. 1, was unrelenting in a 9-3 demolition of Spaniard Carlos Cabello.
Wu Chia-ching, the former world titlist from Chinese-Taipei who now plays for China, dodged the upset axe in one of the featured matches. He got a lucky break with just three balls left to be played to escape with a 9-8 win over Brit Chris Melling.
“The real battle would be in the Round of 64,” said Alcano, who won the World 9-Ball title in 2006. “That is where the matches will be tougher.”
Also the 2007 World 8-Ball titleholder, Alcano is seeking to become the first player to complete pool’s Triple Crown of world championships.
He next plays the winner of the match between Ak Md Saiful Azri of Brunei and Toh Lian Han of Singapore in the second round.
Orcollo, meanwhile, clashes with American Max Eberle, a 9-5 winner over German Harald Stolka.
The Philippines’ reigning world No. 1 Antonio Lining also hurdled his opening foe, scoring a 9-2 victory over Karol Skowerski of Poland to advance against Ukrai-nian Artem Koschovy, a 9-7 victor over Omar Al-Shaheen of Kuwait.
Wu, who hasn’t played out of China the last two years after electing to change nalionalities, will next face Filipino teener Jonas Magpantay, a qualifier who bundled out Qatar’s Mahanna Al-Obaidly, 9-3.
Oliver Ortmann, the German who ruled the 1995 World 9-Ball championship, was the only big name to suffer an opening-day defeat, bowing to China’s Xiang Hanhao, 4-9.
Mika Immonen of Finland and Taiwan’s Kuo Po-cheng also scored, with the defending champion Finn, scoring a 9-4 win over Lee Chen-man of Hong Kong. Kuo was a 9-6 winner over Austrian Mario He.
Orcollo, the former World 8-Ball champ, raced to a 3-0 lead before dropping the next two racks. He then won six of the next seven frames against the burly Spaniard.
“It was a good start, but there’s still a long way to go,” Orcollo said.