Juan Guzman Takes Tri-State Stop

Todd Fleitman and the Tri-State Tour came to Master Billiards in Woodside, NY for an event made possible by sponsors Wild Eye Creations, Billiards Digest and author Phil Capelle. This stop drew 32 determined players and many who played on the last day were long-term loyalists for this tour. In the end it was Juan Guzman who stood alone in first after coming from behind to derail the effort of Raphael Dabreo.

Guzman had come steadily through the winner's bracket with victories over Shadow Hafiz (8-5), Alex Borukhovic (7-5), and then first met the man he would later take on in the finals. In their first meeting Guzman had nothing to fear and sent DaBreo left with a solid 6-2 punch. Guzman then continued on to beat Michael Harrington (6-4), Marco Dy (6-2), and then rested while he awaited his final opponent to emerge from the brackets.

That would be DaBreo. This tour regular dug in his heels after the early loss to Guzman and his determined cue then dispatched Charles Bromley (6-1), Geoffrey Bauer (6-4) and then managed to escape Dave Shiemperis (6-5). DaBreo still had two matches between himself and the finals and he won them both by the same 6-4 score. The first to fall was Ryan McCarthy followed closely by Marco Dy.

This brought about the repeat of the earlier match between Guzman and DaBreo. DaBreo had played more matches this day and came out hot to go up to an early 3-0 lead. But then Guzman found his gear and marked up four straight games to take a narrow lead at 4-3. DaBreo came back again to take two beads and stand on the hill but the next two games went to Guzman and it was he who would rule the day and win the championship 6-5!