WE’RE UP AND running in Rome as the opening day of the 2026 Banca del Fucino WPA Women’s 10-Ball World Championships played out with 32 first round matches. Taking place at the Rome Cavalieri Waldorf Astoria Hotel, the tournament is the centrepiece of a week-long Predator Pro Billiard Series stay which includes the women’s doubles event and the Predator Wheelchair Open.
Off to a solid start was reigning and defending champion, Chezka Centeno. The Filipino phenom has a blistering track record in this event, having won in 2026 and 2024 and reached the semi-final stage in the intervening year. She opened her account with a hard fought 2-1 victory over Chinese veteran Fu Xiaofang to take her place in Winner’s Round 1.
Commented Centeno, “The first set she missed some and I manged to run out and the second set my break is dry break and also, I missed many balls due to focus. Now it’s difficult for me to focus as my mother passed away last month but I do my best to win the world 10-ball again. I just want to eat Filipino food here so that’s what I’ll be doing!”
Centeno can look forward to meeting close friend and doubles partner Rubilen Amit in the next round after Amit defeated Ina Kaplan (GER) to progress.
Another player recording an excellent opening victory was Spain’s Mayte Ropero who defeated Seo Seoa (KOR) 2-1 in a 2.5-hour epic on Table 2. The match was poised at one set apiece before Ropero capitalised with a break-and-run and then with a couple of ball-in-hand opportunities to complete the set 4-0 and with it, the win. For Ropero, it was a big win against a big opponent.
She said, “Always the first round is difficult to play as you don’t know the conditions and especially with Seo, it’s very difficult but I’m happy because I think I played good to beat a very good player. I work a lot on the mental game and I believe in me and my game and it’s just one game and I need to do my best and if I do my best, it’s OK.”
Pia Filler had to dig in as she beat Japan’s Sakura Muramatsu after losing the opening set, as she advanced to the next round. The German can now look forward to Sinem Kokten in the next round as she looks to make a big impression this week.
Pia said, “I lost the first set but I really gave it away, I missed a 9-ball, I missed an 8-ball and just kept making mistakes towards the end. It’s a set system and the match isn’t over until the last 10-ball is down and as always, I kept telling myself to keep fighting and I know I’m going to get chances and just make the best out of it.
“The biggest goal is to win the individual World Championship and I’m all up for it and very excited to be here and it’s a wonderful event and they put so much into it and I think it’s going to be a good week!”
Making a welcome return to European pool is Margarita Fefilova-Styer, and she comfortably advanced, defeating Christine Steinlage (GER) by 2-0. Fefilova-Styer emigrated to the USA a few years ago and is married to American pro player, Tyler Styer. Margarita has Euro tour titles to her name and won a 9-ball gold medal at the European Championships in 2021, her last year in European pool.
She said, “I feel like it’s easy to play good here just because the venue is so great but I just came right after the World 8-Ball Championship so I feel good about my game and feel like I’m in stroke so just a couple of little adjustments and getting comfortable with the tables and I hope to keep it up.
“There’s so much more tournaments in the US, a lot of competitions, my husband is a professional player as well so there’s constant competition between the two of us and playing a lot of local tournaments has helped me become more seasoned and a little bit more of a strategic player. I definitely feel I’m a better player now than I was a couple of years ago,” she added.
Also, underway today was the Predator Wheelchair Open. There are 16 players from ten different countries competing for a $25,000 prize fund and the field features the world’s predominant wheelchair players. A bastion of the wheelchair game for over 25 years is Sweden’s Henrik Larsson, who has won every title the game has to offer.
Larsson got his campaign underway with a hard-won victory over Norway’s Brede Arnøy as he looks forward to success in the event; “It’s great, as long as I have a game that can perform and hopefully inspire others to shoot pool I’m going to continue playing.
“It’s fantastic the event we have here and I’m glad I got to pull off a couple of interesting shots, jump shots, power draws and stuff like that, that can inspire. We’re missing two guys but otherwise you have all the best players here without a doubt.
“It’s amazing here and also because of the integrating factor, we’re playing alongside the women’s world 10-ball championship so this is really a step forward and this is the future for every sport to integrate parasport alongside able-bodied players,” he concluded.
Play resumes on Saturday morning at 11.00 with Winner’s Round 2 and live streaming of Tables 1, 2, 3 and 4 for all events can be found on YouTube, via the Pro Billiard TV channel – https://www.youtube.com/@ProBilliardTV
For all results, live scoring and draw visit the events’ homepage https://probilliardseries.com/event/2026-rome/
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