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| This interview with Johnny Archer took place on October 2nd 1999, one week after he won his first US Open. | ||
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AZB: First off, wow, you are having quite a year. Top 10 in all 4 Camel Events including 2 trips to the finals, 9th in Cardiff and now a win at the US Open. What do you attribute all of your current success to? Johnny: Well, I attribute it a lot to having my mind a lot more clear than it was in the last, say, 2 or 3 years. I've really worked on that. I had some things in my life I had to kinda get straight. I'm working harder this year. I'm practicing more. I'm playing better and it just seems like everything is coming together better for me. AZB: Lets talk about the US Open. You've been to the finals of the US Open a number of times. How does it feel to finally win one? Johnny: It's just hard to explain really how it feels. It feels really good. That's a tournament that I have always wanted to win and they always say 'third time is a charm'. It's really gratifying because now I feel like, even though I still have a lot of years left, now I feel like my career is complete. Or more complete. AZB: You started off with a 7-1 lead in the finals and then watched Jeremy win 6 games in a row to knot the match at 7. Were you starting to think it was deja vu? Johnny: Oh sure. You know a lot of negative things come in when something like that happens. But I contributed the win to just preparing better and being more prepared when things like that did happen. That's what really helped me win, is just being more prepared and more ready when something like that did happen. AZB: A comment was made after you won about you being happy that an american won the event. Can you clarify this? Johnny: Well, it was a joke more than anything. Because for the last 3 or 4 or 5 years, nearly every tournament has been the philipinos winning. Bustamante, Efren, Parica, Luat. Now there are 2 americans in the finals. Actually there were like 5 out of 6 americans in the top 6, which is very unusual. It hasn't been happening like that. And it being the US Open; I mean just like we play the Mosconi Cup, we go overseas and play there so it's like we have to pull for each other. If I had lost, I couldn't have lost to a better person than Jeremy. Of course I would have been upset and bothered because I didn't win but, it would have been easier to get over because of who I would have lost to. So, you know, we still pull for each other. AZB: You have been playing pool professionally for 13 years. What originally gave you the desire and drive to be a professional pool player? Johnny: Well, it's just that I have always loved the game itself, I have always loved to play. I had a lot of talent and I was good enough and pretty smart. The last thought is to try to be the best you can. The best is to try to be the best in the world. It takes a lot of desire and a lot of hard work. You have to work hard at it. AZB: Compare the pool scene today to the pool scene 13 years ago when you were just getting started? Johnny: It's a good bit different. Back then there was a lot more gambling. You know, a lot more guys matching up. A lot more guys playing. That's what I grew up in. That's what everybody grew up in during that era. So, it's just different. The tournament prize money was not as much back then as it is now. The fields are a lot harder to win now than it was back then, I think. Back then, there were only 40-50 players in a tournament, where as now there are hundreds. I mean the last one was 256 players from all over the world. So it is the best players from all over the world and not just the United States. So of course it is a lot harder to win that it was back then. AZB: You have so many great accomplishments; from winning the US Open to earning over $150,000 in one year playing tournament pool. What do you consider your greatest accomplishment in your pool career and why? Johnny: My greatest accomplishment, probably at this point and time, I would have to say the US Open. Not that I say it's the biggest tournament I have ever won because I have won tournaments that paid more money. It would have to be that or maybe winning my first world title or winning my first professional tournament back in 92. It's been a few years since I played well and since I've won, so to win 2 tournaments in a row and one of them being the US Open is just a great feeling. AZB: I've seen your name come up in two different threads on the net recently, one was about about how some guys who are not exactly football players have amazing breaks and your name came up. What do you attribute your break to? Johnny: Well, I attribute my break to probably playing a lot of golf. It is like hitting a golf ball. You have to have your timing right and you have to work your whole body into the golf swing. Not just your arms, or hips or muscles. You have to work your whole body to hit the golf ball far. And my break, of course you know I don't have a lot of muscles, so I have to use my whole body. I have to use my legs, my upper body and just everything to get everything going into the cue ball. Not just my arms. And I have a lot of whip into the cue ball. When my timing is off I don't break the balls well. But my timing has been on a lot better this time. AZB: The other thread was about sportsmanship and which players show the most class on the tour. I watched the video of Tommy Kennedy and you in the finals of the US Open in 1992. You couldn't seem to get a roll, and Tommy won 11-1, but you never showed any emotion. How do you do that? Johnny: Well, I think it is a lot to do with my personality. I've never been a person to show my emotions. It could come to my family, it could come to women, it could come to anything. Thats probably why a lot of times maybe I don't get a lot of dates because I don't show a lot of emotion. So it's hard for me, even though I do feel it just like anybody, but I don't show a lot of it just because I guess I've been a loner or not a loner but I've been out on my own since I was 16 so I've always taken care of myself. So I think it kind of comes down to that. AZB: Billiards Digest is naming the 50 greatest players of the century and you were named 31. What are your thoughts on this? Johnny: I think it's a good thing that they are doing because they've been doing it over the past year or two on ESPN, so I think they probably got the idea from that. But it's hard to really hold a lot to that because they're not asking the players. See what I'm saying, if you took a poll of the players themselves, that's the ones that can really say who is the #10 player and who is the #11 player. Because they have played against them. I don't know who is doing the picking, but I am sure it is not top players. For them to say Loree Jon is a better pool player than Efren Reyes, or Buddy Hall. Not to have anything against Loree Jon and her accomplishments, I think she has done really well and I think she is a great player. But to sit there and say that, is to me just ludicrous. AZB: Well, that is a perfect lead in the final question. Who, in your opinion, was the greatest to play the game? Johnny: Well, over all player, I think the best is Efren Reyes. That is who I have played against and I think is the best considering all aspects of the game. You're talking about one pocket, you're talking about banking, you're talking about safeties, you're talking about kicking, you're talking pocketing balls, whatever. The greatest nine ball player, cause thats the game we really play, it could be a number of players. It could be Buddy Hall, it could be Earl Strickland. You know, everybody gets hot. I guess it could be myself. But I think the greatest all around knowledgable player that has played all games that I have seen would have to be Efren. |
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