Brendan Crockett (Photos courtesy of JP Parmienter)
The US Open 10-Ball Championship kicked off on Monday at the Riviera Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada with 128 players competing for the $20,000 first prize.
The story of the opening night of this event was fourteen year old Brendan Crockett's 9-6 win over 2009 Player of the Year Jasmin Ouschan in the second round of play. That round of play turned out to be bad for all of the ladies in action as Kelly Fisher dropped a 9-0 match to Marcus Chamat that saw Kelly unable to get anything going. Jennifer Barretta looked to be in good shape early as she led Edwin Montal 3-0, but dropped the match 9-6.
Other matches in round two saw Adam Kielar stay with Daryl Peach until midway through the match when Peach took control for a 9-5 win. Earl Strickland's match with Kenichi Uchigaki started close before Strickland blew it open 9-3.
Round three saw pool legend Allen Hopkins lose a heartbreaker that saw both he and opponent Jeff Jiminez struggle to close out the match. Jiminez scratched on a 9-ball on the hill, but Hopkins missed a fairly routine 10-ball at hill-hill for the loss. Vivian Villarreal finally earned a win for the ladies, but it wasn't easy. At hill-hill against Hunter Lombardo, Villarreal measured a 2-10 carom, but instead opted for the 2-ball. The referee thought she has intended to pocket the 10-ball and called a foul. Tournament director Ken Shuman stepped in and handed the situation - awarding the shot to Villarreal - who went on to run the rack for the 9-8 win.
The final round of play on Monday night saw "The Magician" Efren Reyes in action and as expected, he drew a crowd of fans to watch him match with Bobby Weimar. Reyes did not disappoint the fans as he cruised to a 9-3 win. Efren's fellow Filipinos also cruised to lopsided wins as Dennis Orcollo defeated Raj Hundal 9-4 and Roberto Gomez beat Imran Majid 9-2.
After Villarreal broke the ice for the ladies in round three, Liz Ford cruised to a 9-6 win over James Baraks. Ford trailed 2-0 early, but raced back to a 6-2 lead and never looked back.
The night ended with two nailbiters as Johnny Archer raced to an 8-4 lead, only to see opponent James Roberts fight back to 9-7 down with Roberts shooting at a fairly routine 10-ball. The worst happened as Roberts missed the 10-ball and scratched at the same time. The other nailbiter saw Rodney Morris and Jayme Goodwin go hill-hill before Goodwin missed a 6-ball and allowed Rodney to run out for the win.
Play gets underway Tuesday at 11am. Early matches on Tuesday include Tyler Edey vs Ronnie Wiseman, Chris Melling vs Oscar Dominguez and Thorsten Hohmann vs Kim Davenport.
Follow all of the action with our online brackets and real time scoring.
