2000 U.S. Open 9-Ball Championship
Tape #259B-01
Johnny Archer vs. Efren Reyes

Those of us who were not able to make it to Chesapeake back in September to watch the US Open 9-ball championship had to follow along the brackets via one of the sites providing online coverage. Undoubtedly, in the 6th round, when the brackets showed Johnny Archer vs. Efren Reyes, fans must have automatically assumed it would be a great match. They would have been very right and thanks to the magic of Accu-Stats, we get a chance to go back and witness that match.

Going into this match, Johnny Archer was the defending US Open champion while Efren had won his last 2 major events (Camel 8-Ball Tourney and US Open One Pocket). Johnny mentions after the match that he was not playing well in the tournament prior to this match but you wouldn't be able to tell by this video.

In the early going, Johnny is in complete control while Efren makes a couple uncharacteristic misses. We get to see Johnny break racks wide open and run a number of racks with almost flawless pool but we do not get to see very much of the usual Efren magic. Efren seems stuck on trying to soft break the 1-ball in the side from the break box much to the announcers dismay.

To give you an idea what kind of pool Archer is playing, he gets to the hill at 10-5 by shooting an amazing .960 Accu-Stat average. The 16th game starts with some bad clusters and is the turning point of the match. With 2 ball-in-hand chances, Johnny can't get out and Efren wins the game.

The next portion of the match shows Efren soft breaking, leaving clusters and Johnny not being able to do anything with these clusters. Much to the amazement of the audience and commentators, Efren gets back to 10-10.

The final game is won with a run that either of these players would probably finish in their sleep but with the score at hill-hill in the US Open, there is a lot of pressure involved and it really shows.

Everything I have described about the match so far makes for a great tape but the part of the tape that really suffers is the announcing. The announcers for this tape are Grady Mathews and Bill Incardona so you would think that you would hear some great insight into the game and the shots the players select. Instead, you get to hear these two disagree over everything. If one announcer says he thinks the player will go 1 rail, the other says he will go 2 rails. If one announcers says the player should go right, the other will choose left. This goes well beyond simple disagreement and you will be sure they are disagreeing on purpose by the end of the tape. On multiple occasions towards the end of the match, one announcer will ask the others opinion and get no response at all. This gets very annoying and detracted from the tape in my opinion.

The camera work is first rate as is Grady's use of the telestrator. Grady uses the telestrator a fair amount of the time and at the right times.

With the players involved on this tape, I completely reccommend it for the pool playing involved. The level of play in the first 75% of the tape is A+ and it is very interesting to watch the last game as the eventual winner feels the pressure of the match on every single shot. You will definitely watch if multiple times, you just might do it with the sound turned off.

 

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