Margarita Fefilova fulfilled her potential and reigned victorious at the Women’s World 10-Ball Championship in Rome, Italy, defeating two-time champion Chezka Centeno in a five-set thriller.
Fefilova fended off a spirited comeback from the Filipina to accomplish the most prosperous achievement of her career to date, earning herself the lucrative $55,000 champion’s cheque and denying Centeno an historic title defence.
Despite claiming eight of the opening nine racks and storming into a two-set ascendancy, Fefilova was required to show tremendous mettle as Centeno responded in kind, winning sets three and four 4-0 and 4-1 to force a deciding set.
Fefilova regathered her composure and her resoluteness alongside a couple of decisive unforced errors from Centeno meant that the Minsk-born star emerged victorious.
The 29-year-old defeated three former champions en route to the title, etching her name onto a star-studded roll of honour alongside 2023 and 2025 winner Centeno, Rubilen Amit and Jasmin Ouschan, as well as Kelly Fisher, Kristina Tkach, Chou Chieh-Yu and Kim Ga-Young.
Fefilova had beaten Ouschan battled back from 2-1 behind in sets against Chen Chia-Hua in a dramatic quarter-final that spanned across four-and-a-half hours, before winning three tightly-contested sets to beat 2022 winner Chou 3-0 in the semi-finals.
It was a more commanding route to the final for Centeno, who responded to a second round defeat to fellow Filipina Amit by dropping just two sets in wins over Kennedy Meyman, Silviana Lu, Pia Filler, Savannah Easton, Chihiro Kawahara and reigning world 9-ball champion Seo Seoa.
American teenagers Easton and Sofia Mast stunned Tkach and Amit respectively in impressive scalps to reach the final 16, with Easton having beaten Fefilova on her way to the Women’s World 8-Ball Championship semi-finals less than two weeks ago.
Nonetheless, Fefilova can now call herself the women’s world 10-ball champion. She held back the tears on the champion’s podium with the Belarusian flag around her neck, as her country’s national anthem was played with immense pride.
