Peter Ebdon wins the UK Snooker Championship defeating Stephen Hendry 10-6
Ebdon won the UK Championship for the first time in his life and became only the ninth player to have won the World and UK titles. The UK Snooker Championship is the second most important tournament in the world of Snooker and Peter will advance to number 4 in the Provisional Ranking following this victory.
After beating John Higgins in the semi final in what was probably the best game of the tournament (9-7) and beating the former champion Ding Junhui in the quarter final, Ebdon was the one to overcome pressure of the final to beat Hendry last night.
Ebdon said about the game: "I knew it was going to be tough against Stephen, then he inexplicably missed balls and so did I. It went a bit funny. I had a bit of a wobble then I managed to compose myself and it was ok.
Despite defeat, Hendry remained upbeat about his game. "I’m delighted with my snooker, it’s been 100 per cent better this season," he said. "I’ve still got four ranking tournaments plus Masters to go, my game can only get better and I'm looking forward to the New Year. He added: "I felt comfortable and confident all week but tonight I didn’t feel anything. I felt flat and couldn’t get going. I missed so many long balls".
"I had chances in most frames and picked today to play the worst snooker of the week, but take nothing away from Peter."
2006 World Pool Championship
Ronato Alcano is the new world champion
Alcano, aged 34, defeated Ralf Souquet by 17-11 to become the third Filipino to win the competition following successes for Efren Reyes in 1999 and Alex Pagulayan in 2004. Alcano will win $100,000 as well as the prestigious title of best player in the world.
Alcano was quoted saying that “My life will change,” and “I’m still thinking about what I need to do with the money as this is the first time I’ve ever had this amount."
About the game he said: “My game plan was to try and get the break working and open up a two or three rack lead. When I got a six-rack lead (at 9-3) a little bit more comfortable but I knew it was not over." and about his rival: “Ralf Souquet is so controlled, even when the crowd went against him he remained focused, unlike a player like Earl Strickland, and Ralf was always so poised. At the end I was holding back tears and this is how good it feels to be the World Champion but I was successful in not breaking down and crying.”
Alcano started the competition with two defeats against German Christian Reimiering and Vietnam ’s Luong Chi Dung and only just made it out of the group stages. He admitted he had changed his tactics to fully use the soft break and that worked with knock-out victories against tough opponents Roberto Gomez, Efren Reyes, Kuo Po-cheng, Wu Chia-ching, Li He-wen and then Souquet in the final.
The Final of the World Pool Championship
Alcano opened with a quick 3-0 lead. Souquet managed to get on the scoreboard only in the fourth frame and afterwards Alcano managed to increase his lead to 8-2, 9-3, 12-5 and 13-6. Souquet managed to close the gap a bit coming to 16-11 but in the 28th frame after the break, Alcano has no pot on the 1 ball so plays a very tight snooker, locking the cue ball up behind the 2 down table. Souquet escapes superbly but Alcano puts him in another hook. Souquet fouls trying to escape and leaves a 1/9 on for his opponent. Alcano makes it and is the 2006 Philippines World Pool Champion. 17-11
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Ronato Alcano |
Ralf Souquet |
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