Billiards
World pool rankings: Orcullo keeps top spot, Alcano is No. 3
Dennis Orcullo remains No. 1 in world pool.
Ronnie Alcano fell short in his bid to become the first Pinoy three-time world champion, but Dennis Orcullo kept his hold on the No. 1 spot in the World Pool-Billiard Association ranking at the end of the World 9-Ball Championship.
Despite losing to Alcano in their Final Four encounter in the tournament won by Yukio Akakariyama of Japan, Orcullo was able to retain the top spot after getting a bonus of 640 points from entering the semis of the recent world championship.
The man known as “The Robocop” now has 2510 ranking points.
Akakariyama overtook Alcano at second place after getting 1000 additional points from becoming the new 9-Ball champion. The first Japanese to win a world championship in the sport, he now has a total of 2100 points, 37 more than Alcano.
Two other Pinoys, Lee Van Corteza and Antonio Lining, remained in the top 10 of the world rankings.
Corteza, who was runner-up to Mika Immonen of Finland in the World Ten Ball Championship in Manila two years ago, is currently in No. 8 with 1501 points.
Lining, who was the world No. 1 player back in April this year, dropped to No. 10. He has a total of 1395 RPs.
Other players in the top 10 include former world No.1 and inaugural World Ten Ball champ Darren Appleton of Great Britain, his compatriot Chris Melling, Huidji See of the Netherlands and Chang Jung Lin of
Chinese Taipei.
Appleton has 1709 points followed by Melling at No. 5 with 1625.
See, the newly-crowned World Ten Ball champion, occupies the sixth spot with 1566 followed by Chang Jung Lin of Chinese Taipei with 1555.
The Filipinos will have another busy schedule next week as they compete in the Guinness World Series of Pool in Jakarta, Indonesia on July 13-17.
