By Sunday morning, the field at the 30th Annual Diamond Open Professional Players Championship, held at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, PA from April 11-14, had come down from its 128 entrants to eight. They’d gone through a monster 128-player, double-elimination bracket until there were eight left on each side of the bracket. Those 16 entered a single-elimination phase, which opened up on Saturday night, immediately reducing the field to the aforementioned eight in the event’s quarterfinals.
Jayson Shaw returned from the loss side of the double-elimination phase of the tournament, entered the single-elimination phase and went undefeated from there to claim the title; his second Diamond Open Pro Player Championship, having won the event in 2022 and lost in the 2023 finals to Jonas Souto Comino.. Shaw was challenged in the final by Lithuania’s Pijus Labutis, who won four straight in double elimination, and advanced through the single-elimination bracket to challenge Shaw in the finals.
After Shaw defeated Tyler Styer 11-7 in the first round of single elimination on Saturday, he returned on Sunday morning to meet and defeat Lukas Fracasso-Verner 11-6 in one of the quarterfinals. Shaw drew Shaun Wilkie in the semifinals. Labutis opened his single-elimination work with a victory over Mortiz Neuhausen 11-8, before downing Darren Appleton 11-7 in the quarterfinals and drawing BJ Ussery, Jr. in the other semifinal.
As he had done in a double-elimination match versus Tommy Kennedy, Shaw let Wilkie get out to a substantial lead in their semifinal match. The two traded racks to a 1-1 tie before Wilkie set out on a five-rack run. Ahead 6-1, Wilkie made a tough, though successful cut at the 6-ball in rack 7 and scratched. Jayson finished the rack, but Wilkie came right back with one to regain his five-rack lead at 7-2.
Jayson began a run that would pull him within one, winning four straight, including the first break & run of the match. At 7-6, Shaun responded to make it 8-6 and then, chalked up his first break and run to go ahead 9-6.
Rack 16 proved pivotal, as Wilkie made an unforced error shooting at the 8-ball. Shaw pounced and won the first of three, including his second break & run to knot thing at 9-9. Wilkie took advantage of an unforced error by Shaw to reach the hill first, but Shaw came right back with his 4th break and run to force a double-hill, deciding game. Wilkie broke and scratched. With ball in hand, Shaw stepped to the table and won.
In a match that went back and forth through multiple ties and lead exchanges, BJ Ussery and Pijus Labutis were battling the other semifinal out on a nearby table. Ussery, having been responsible for sending Shaw to the loss side in double elimination, may have been looking ahead to a second matchup against Shaw in the final. He and Labutis played three less games than Shaw and Wilkie but took more time doing it. They’d kept it close until Labutis began to edge out in front, winning it finally 11-7.
In the final that began about half an hour after the final 9-ball dropped in the semifinal, Labutis won the lag and immediately chalked up the match’s first break & run. Perhaps mindful of previous matches during the event in which he’d had to struggle when his opponent got a little too far out in front, Shaw stepped up to the table and got to work right away.
Shaw broke and dropped a ball in rack #2, but failed to pocket the 1-ball. Labutis made a mistake shooting at, Shaw stepped up and ran the table to create the first, and as it turned out, only tie at 1-1. Shaw won the next eight racks to take a commanding 9-1 lead before Labutis registered his second break and run to make it 9-2.
Labutis won the next two, but Shaw won rack #14 to reach the hill first. Labutis came back with something of a desperate run, winning three in a row and chalking up his third break & run to pull within three at 10-7. Shaw closed it out, winning rack #18 to claim the event title.
“Pool’s a funny old game,” said Shaw after the match, “and (Labutis) played a good, good set.”
While musing just a bit about the folly of depending on safety play too much – “How many times do you play safe and when you come back to the table, you’re in (a bad position). I figure what’s the point? I’m just going to go for it. Most of the time, I’m going to make (the shot) anyway, so why am I playing safe in the first place?” – Shaw went on to express satisfaction with where he’s ‘at’ presently.
“I’m just happy to be playing well again,” he said, “and I feel like I’m in good shape.”
Hard to find somebody who competed in the 30th Annual Diamond Open Professional Players Championship who disagreed with him.
Total prize fund is growing as the SBE contributes to prize fund from live streaming passes
As a matter of perspective, the 30th Annual Diamond Open 9-Ball Professional Players Championships at the Super Billiards Expo was at a ‘120 down, 8 to go’ juncture when the sun rose over the Greater Philadelphia Convention Center in Oaks, PA this morning (Sun., April 14). With a little bit of luck, it should be over before the sun goes down.
This may be the first tournament anywhere at which players are content to not know the payouts until the final day. That’s because the prize fund is growing, day by day. That is happening because Allen Hopkins’ Super Billliards Expo is contributing directly to the prize fund with a portion of every Streaming Pass purchased as the event goes on. The money-added to the prize fund has also grown with Sponsorship Opportunities and is currently at $24.5k. The total payouts as of 10:30 a.m. this morning was at $83,514. If you have an interest in any of the matches that remain, you’ll know that when you sign on to watch through the SBE Web site (link listed below), you’ll personally be contributing to what the top finishers are paid.
We noted in a report that appeared here on Friday that the 128 initial entrants “made for a diversified, skill-level field that blended upper-tier, regional tour players with some of the best in the world.” That dynamic has survived four winners’ side and five loss-side rounds of double elimination, along with one ‘in the money’ single-elimination round.
The final eight were an hour away from beginning their day as this report was being written and the eight will likely be down to the four semifinalists before somewhere between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. (EST) this afternoon. The tour directors are playing the scheduling ‘close to their vest’ to allow for any long matches that could (and often do) delay progress. Their calculations incorporate opportunities for competitors to take a breath between the three remaining rounds; not a big one that might interrupt momentum or too short to be of any value. Just enough, combined with the uncertainty of match lengths to keep the balls rolling at a steady pace to the final.
Of the eight competitors who lost their opportunity to advance to single elimination in the last winners’ side qualification round, six of them chalked up a successful, single round on the loss side to join the final 16 from that side of the bracket. Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz, who’d lost his first match to Darren Appleton 11-9 in that last qualifying round, downed Eddie Abraham 11-5 on the loss side to join the final 16. He drew Michael Feliciano, who’d lost his winners’ side qualifying round to Jonas Souto Comino, the event’s defending champion.
Thorsten Hohmann, who’d lost to fellow countryman Moritz Neuhausen 11-8, returned from the loss side after defeating another fellow countryman; The Kaiser, Ralf Souquet 11-7. In the opening round of single-elimination, Hohmann drew Shaun Wilkie, who’d won three on the loss side, including an 11-7 victory over Jeremy Sossei to the join the final 16. David Alcaide, who’d been defeated by Shane Wolford 11-6 on the winners’ side, eliminated Jeffrey DeLuna on the loss side and joined the final 16, drawing Lukas Fracasso-Verner. Fracasso-Verner, who’d lost a double-hill match to Hohmann on the winners’ side, survived an opening, double-hill loss-side round to Raphael DaBreo before eliminating Rodney Morris 11-5 and Mika Immonen 11-9 to join the final 16.
Tyler Styer, who’d lost to Canada’s John Morra 11-5 on the winners’ side, defeated Cong Thanh Nguyen 11-6 on the loss side to join the final 16 party. Styer had the daunting task of facing Jayson Shaw in the opening, single-elimination round. Shaw had been defeated in the last winners’ side qualification round by BJ Ussery, Jr. 11-7 and on the loss side, ended the run of Earl “The Pearl” Strickland 11-7.
The opening round of single elimination got underway just after 9 p.m. on Saturday, with a number of intriguing matchups that reflected the ‘skill-level diversity of the field.’ Spain’s Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz, who topped the AZBilliards Money Leaderboard in 2022, dropped just a bit in 2023 (to #4) and is currently in the #7 spot, faced Filipino Michael Feliciano, who’s never been higher than #66 on that same list (his current position). To our knowledge, he has not recorded a major win, anywhere, so definitely the ‘underdog’ to Sanchez-Ruiz’ status as a ‘favorite.’ Last night, the ‘underdog’ sent the favorite ‘home,’ so to speak, 11-8.
In this morning’s opening round (ongoing), Feliciano drew Shaun Wilkie, a mid-Atlantic journeyman who was runner-up to Shane Van Boening at this event in 2008. Wilkie had joined the final 16 from the loss side and in the first, single-elimination round had eliminated Thorsten Hohmann, double hill. As of just after noon, Wilkie was leading Feliciano 5-3 in the quarterfinals.
Lukas Fracasso-Verner, who’d defeated David Alcaide 11-5 in the first single-elimination round was facing Jayson Shaw, who’d eliminated Tyler Styer 11-7 to reach him. Shaw was ahead 5-4.
Brandon Shuff eliminated Shane Wolford last night 11-9 and in the morning matchup, faced BJ Ussery, who’d previously defeated John Morra 11-9. Shuff was leading this morning action 4-3. Darren “Dynamite” Appleton, who’d spoiled defending champion Jonas Souto Comino’s shot at a second straight title with an 11-4 win last night, was facing Pijus Labutis, who’d previously defeated Moritz Neuhausen 11-8. Last heard, Labutis was ahead of Appleton 8-5.
Sanchez-Ruiz defeats The Pearl, as Kennedy/Shaw create drama that sends Kennedy over
It’s difficult at best, approaching impossible, to watch two pool matches at the same time. While you can certainly pay attention to more than one at a time, your divided attention has a way of missing some of the action. The modern technology of multiple screens offered by a streaming service exacerbates this problem because it makes shifting your attention from one screen to another that much easier. You end up doing it more and while you’ll certainly be able to track the score progress of multiple matches, you tend not to really ‘see’ any of them; the give and take between two competitors, the ebb and flow that defines individual games and match progress as it plays out over time. The basics of what makes a good pool match so much fun to watch in the first place.
So it was, that on Friday night (March 12), at the evening session of the 30th Annual Diamond Open 9-Ball Professional Players Championships at the Super Billiards Expo, in-person spectators and distant streamers had some tough choices to make. What to do when, for example, Earl Strickland and Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz are playing a match, while at the same time, Tommy Kennedy and Jayson Shaw are doing so a matter of a few feet away? And those were just two of the 16 matchups that got started at (or near) 9:15 p.m. last night.
The two most-likely-to-be-popular matches (a subjective opinion) are generally placed in front of the two risers that accommodate the Championship Arena’s seating capabilities. There are about 32 seats in each two-level riser. There are 11 folding tables that surround the arena, seating about four per table.
The ’feature’ match on the digitalpool streaming system with its visible scoring and commentary, was between Strickland and Sanchez-Ruiz, but you could choose to watch any of the other 15 matches, as long as you were willing to keep score yourself. Or, if you had an appropriate device, you could monitor the ‘live’ brackets on digitalpool.com, switching back and forth between streaming the match and the score. Tuning in to watch a match that doesn’t provide a score is almost pointless because a lot of a match’s inherent entertainment value derives from a spectator’s awareness of where the match is ‘at,’ so to speak, at any given moment; whether the competitors are tied or one is ‘on the hill’ or in the midst of three games in a row, or . .whatever.
Sanchez-Ruiz got out to an early 2-0 lead over Strickland that he never relinquished. By game 6, it was a four-point lead (5-1), by game 13, it was five points (9-4) and two games later, Sanchez-Ruiz closed it out at 11-4. Sanchez-Ruiz was scheduled to play at 4 p.m. today (Saturday) against Darren Appleton, who’d defeated Alex Osipov 11-9. The (Saturday) afternoon, winners’ side matches will put eight players into the 16-entrant, guaranteed money, single-elimination phase of the event. Strickland was scheduled to take on Bucky Souvanthong on the loss-side at 1:45 p.m.
The Kennedy/Shaw match was only a matter of feet away, next to the Strickland/Sanchez-Ruiz table, but closer to the opposite seating area. It offered some instantaneous drama as Kennedy, almost assuredly the ‘underdog’ in the matchup, got out to a 4-0 lead that by game #9 had become a five-point lead at 7-2. Shaw was literally and figuratively ‘cold’ at the outset.
“It was so cold,” he would comment after the match, “that I didn’t even want to be here. It was like 61 degrees, blowing on the back of your neck.”
The two offered distinct differences in ‘style.’ Shaw’s performance in a match is characterized by a very business-like attitude. When he’s at the table, there is no wasted energy. He finds his shot, aims and strokes in almost one movement that would reset a shot clock (not used at this event) before it counted down more than 10 seconds. Shaw doesn’t waste any energy when he steps away from the table either.He sits down and looks like one of those newer cars that shuts off the engine when it stops moving. Until he gets back up, he looks as though he could be waiting for a bus, idly wondering what he might want to order for dinner.
Kennedy’s ‘work’ is much more of a production. He spends as much time looking for (or at) a shot and deciding to get down on it than Shaw generally spends between getting up and getting back down. The amount of time Kennedy spends between getting down to take his shot and then actually taking it, will vary widely. Though rarely long enough to challenge a shot clock, his ‘routine’ at the tables tends to be more deliberate and thoughtful as he takes the time available to double-check things before finally letting the stroke go. He tends to ‘look’ more engaged when he’s waiting for his turn at the table.
Shaw got warmed up at the conclusion of Kennedy’s 7th game win. One game at a time, he kept chipping away at Kennedy’s lead. He banked the 9-ball into a hole to tie things up at 7-7, then took his first lead and added another at 9-7. Kennedy took advantage of a ready-made combo on the 9-ball to come back to within one, but Shaw came right back to reach the hill. Kennedy got within one a second time, but Shaw finished it 11-9.
At 4 p.m. today (Saturday), Shaw is scheduled to face BJ Ussery, Jr., who defeated Sam Henderson 11-7 last night. Kennedy moved to the loss side and at 4 p.m., will take on Wiktor Zielinski.
Shane Van Boening (Taka G Wu/Matchroom Multi Sport)
Shane Van Boening will begin the defense of his World Pool Championship title against Japan’s Masato Yoshioka in Kielce, Poland from February 1-5 live on Sky Sports in the UK, Viaplay in Poland, Scandinavia and the Baltics, DAZN in the USA as well as Matchroom.Live and networks worldwide.
The American will look to become only the second player in history to defend the title following in the footsteps of Earl Strickland in a packed arena at Targi Kielce. 46 countries will be represented in the 128-player field as it is whittled down to the Last 64 over the first two days of action before it’s straight knockout to the end where one will claim the $60,000 first-place prize and the world crown.
The draw was completed with the top 64 players from the Nineball World Rankings against an unseeded player from the other 64 in the hat. Standout first-round ties include 2015 world champion Ko Pin Yi facing James Aranas of the Philippines whilst 2022 semi-finalist Abdullah Alyousef faces the tricky prospect of Johann Chua. 2004 world champion Alex Pagulayan was unseeded and will meet Michael Schneider.
World Cup of Pool winner David Alcaide takes on Billy Thorpe and Shane Wolford‘s mission for a spot on Team USA at the 2023 Mosconi Cup takes on Pia Filler. Francisco Sanchez Ruiz had a year to remember last year and will begin his Nineball campaign against So Shaw of Iran.
Double elimination matches are all race to 9, with all matches from the Last 64 a race to 11 except the final, which is a race to 13.
Table 1 will be live on broadcasters worldwide including Sky Sports in the UK, Viaplay in Poland, Scandinavia, Baltics, and the Netherlands, DAZN in the USA, Canada, and Italy, as well as on Matchroom.Live and networks worldwide. See where to watch here.
Table 2 will be live on Viaplay in selected territories as well as on Matchroom.Live and the Matchroom Pool YouTube channel.
Table 3 will be live on Viaplay in selected territories as well as on Matchroom.Live and the Matchroom Multi Sport YouTube channel.
Diamond Derby City Classic XXIV, January 20-28, 2023
Caesars Southern Indiana, Elizabeth, IN
Master of the Table points are accredited to the Banks, One Pocket, and 9-Ball divisions.
The player who accrues the most points from their highest finishes in the 3 disciplines is Master of the Table or, as it is also known, All-Around-Champion.
Diamond generously delivers an additional $20,000 for first, plus, $3,000 and $2,000 respectively for 2nd and 3rd.
More on that later after the One Pocket final.
The Accu-Stats PPV OnDemand service has all of the above entertainment available for your viewing pleasure until Feb.28, 2023.
Diamond Derby City Classic ONE-POCKETChampionship: Sun Jan. 22 -Wed. Jan. 25.
Semis and Finals are rescheduled in the Accu-Stats TV Arena before the Friday Night Ring Game, Jan 27.
In the Accu-Stats Arena, Efren was pitted against sharpshooting Lithuanian Pijus Labutis.
Reyes realized he had to change strategy when Pijus, comfortable with his latest Mezz cue, had streaked to a 2-1 lead. It was then his masterful “moving” game began.
Labutis, now dumbfounded, spent the remainder of the match, immobilized…and in awe.
Soon, tied at 2-2, Efren showed his ability to run 8to find himself stuck on the remaining cluster. He still need one ball as he was-1 when he begun the run.
While Efren was considering his next move, the referee approached the table and told him he had won.
Efren, confused, questioned, “But I need one more ball?”
The ref had forgotten that Efren owed one.
Pijus, respectfully, in a kind of, “Oh, whatever,” moment, honored the ref’s decision and offered Efren his hand.
Pijus, showing true sportsmanship, had observed the current pattern of Efren’s of play, probablyconcluded that there was no way he was getting a look at another ball.
Meanwhile, in the outer arena, Fedor, fired up from his Bank Pool accomplishment, had his 2022 One-Pocket title to defend against 2009 DCC One-Pocket winner John Schmidt.
Fedor, a few rounds back, collided with the skillset of 2022 Texas Open One-Pocket runner-up Yerry Calderon and was, unceremoniously, sent to the buy-back booth.
Now he faced John, a household name as the first player to out-run Willie Mosconi’s 526 14.1 record – coincidently, by the number on every serious straight-pool player’s bucket list, 100!
Knowledge of pattern-play in 14.1 is a renowned asset in One-Pocket.
More drama; John had already gone to the buy-back booth because of his prior encounter with the robust Roberto Gomez.
In the opening game, Schmidt rallied from a minus two ball deficit to 7-7 only to have Fedor, unflinchingly, deliver the 8th to his hole. 1-0.
Fast-forward to tied at 2 games: John, 5 balls ahead, adopted the strategy of forming the “wedge.” The method here is to move all the balls up-table into a corner making it near impossible to for Gorst to run the remaining balls.
The strategy worked: John soon had his remaining 3 balls.
Fedor is now in left to his fate in the 9-Ball division.
The outer-arena crowd gathered as Filler faced Efren. Both being undefeated, one was heading to the buy-back hell.
Efren removed Naojuki Oi. Filler, ditto with Robert Frost.
Filler will be the first to admit that his strength in one-hole is applying the aforementioned Straight-Pool methodology and just running-out. In fact, he’s quite brilliant at it.
Forget all this “moving” altho, as you can imagine, his safety-play is formidable, too.
Efren, struggling a little, yet always respectful, awarded Joshua game-ball to go ahead 2-1.
Now, down 1-2, we know never to count Reyes out.
He put the tiller to Filler to hoe two superlative 8-and-outs. Josh was left no alternative but to humbly buy-back.
We also know never to count Joshua out: Heaven help his next opponent.
Johnathon Pinegar is no stranger to Derby City, yet it might be this year’s performance by administering losses to Shane Van Boening and Tyler Styer that will be remembered best.
The action-packed week continues with a little levity and a lot of moolah:
DCC’s Friday Night Ring Game: Jan 27
The captured match-ups are available via the Accu-Stats Pay-Per-View OnDemand, 4-camera HD production. Approximately, 60 action-packed hours of pro-pool are projected, PLUS reruns. After each match concludes, it is uploaded and available for your viewing pleasure. With PPV OnDemand, you choose when you watch, no matter what you’re timezone.
Yep, Yapp won ‘em both. And his girlfriend, Silviana Lu won the other one.
The 3rd Annual Meucci Classic at Racks Billiards Sports Bar & Grill in Sanford, FL this past weekend (Nov. 10-13) gave Singapore’s Aloysius Yapp his third and fourth 2022 event victory, which added to his already-best (recorded with us) earnings year since we recorded his first two cash winnings in September of 2012, a week apart; a 17th place finish at the Party Poker World Cup of Pool in Quezon City in the Philippines (won by Mika Immonen) and a week+ later, a 33rd place finish at the China Open in Shanghai (won by Dennis Orcollo).
So, the Meucci Classic was nowhere near his first rodeo. By the same token, Yapp’s presence outside of a fairly consistent group of world-travelling pool professionals had him flying under a lot of the US pool-playing radar until he showed up in the finals of the 2021 US Open 9-Ball Championships in Atlantic City and battled in the finals (unsuccessfully) against Carlo Biado. He became a much more consistently-present figure for the rest of the year, with appearances in (among others) the American 14:1 Straight Pool Championships (9th), the International 9-Ball Open (17th), the International Open’s Big Foot 10-Ball (3rd behind Joshua Filler and Mika Immonen) and a win on the Predator US Pro Billiard Series in Battle Creek, Michigan.
He’s cashed in 19 events this year, winning four of them, runner-up in two and 3rd in three. He won this year’s Michigan Open and the Sandcastle Open before heading to the eastern shores of Virginia where he finished 9th at this year’s International Open 9-Ball tournament and was 3rd for the second time at the Big Foot 10-Ball event; this time, behind the juggernaut known as Fedor Gorst and Joshua Filler. He shuffled off to Sanford, FL last weekend, where he went undefeated through seven opponents, downing Austria’s Max Lechner twice; double hill in the hot seat match and 9-5 in the finals of the $4,000-added, 121-entrant 9-Ball tournament.
Left in the good-company dust (among others) were Austria’s Wiktor Zielinski, Poland’s Mieszko Fortunski, Germany’s Moritz Neuhausen, Finland’s Mika Immonen, Austria’s Mario He, Greece’s Alex Kazakis and Estonia’s Denis Grabe. Lithuania’s Pijus Labutis finished the tournament with the distinction of having won the most consecutive matches, 10 of them on the loss side, before he was stopped by Lechner in the semifinals. Leading the American charge for the title was BJ Ussery, Jr., who finished 4th; an outstanding finish for the South/mid-Atlantic competitor. Also in the US lineup were local stalwarts Anthony Meglino, Donny Mills, Mike Delawder, Raymond Linares, Bobby Garza and 1992’s US Open 9-Ball Champion, Tommy Kennedy.
The 3rd Annual Meucci Classic’s $5,000-added, 63-entrant 10-Ball Tournament was a different story. Same ending, just a different story. The 10-Ball battles preceded and overlapped the 9-Ball battles, so Yapp availed himself of the six-opponent practice opportunity, with an extra ball in the game, and went undefeated. He got by Poland’s Konrad Juszczyszyn and two Americans, George Saunders and Alan Rolon Rosado, to advance to the 16-player, single-elimination phase of the event. Yapp was joined in the winners’ side advancement by Wiktor Zielinski, Bosnia/Herzegovina’s Sanjin Pehlivanovich, Dmitri Loukatos, Taipei’s Jung Lin Chan and Jeffrey DeLuna. BJ Ussery, Jr., who’d go on to finish fourth in the 9-Ball competition, advanced, as did Donny Mills. Joining them from the loss side were Adam Wheeler, Max Lechner, Pijus Labutis (who would not get the most consecutive win prize in this event), Jani Uski, Mika Immonen, Mario He, David Singleton and Denis Grabe.
Ussery would engage in the only double hill battle of the single-elimination’s first round, against Jani Uski, and it would knock him out of the 10-Ball competition. Three of the four quarterfinal matches went double hill; Immonen over Uski, Yapp over Labutis, and Grabe over Lechner. Zielinski downed Pehlivanovic 11-5.
Zielinski ‘iced’ the Iceman, allowing him only a single rack in one of the semifinal matches, while Yapp was a little busier, eliminating Grabe 11-7. Yapp claimed the 10-Ball title with a stingy 11-3 victory over Zielinski.
Indonesia’s Silviana Lu goes undefeated, winning 81% of her 37 games to claim Ladies title
In this, her first year as a cash-winning player in our AZBilliards database, Indonesia’s Silviana Lu has cashed in only two events. She finished in a tie for 5th place at the Asian Pool Federation’s 9-Ball Open, Women’s Division in August. A month later, she finished in the tie for 9th place at the WPBA’s Michigan Open. Her boyfriend, Singapore’s Aloysius Yapp finished in the tie for 17th in the former event and won the latter.
She has recorded her first event victory with us as a result of going undefeated through a field of 27 entrants in the $1,000-added Ladies 9-Ball event. And she did so by defeating her six opponents with an 81% game-winning average (30-7), shutting out half of them and not allowing any of them to chalk up more than three against her; Nicolle Cuellar, who has Florida-area tour victories and cash finishes going back 10 years to the former Flamingo Tour.
Note to competitors looking to take advantage of the increased amount of money being offered at Scotch Doubles events across the country: In addition to the Fillers (Joshua and Pia) and the Fedor Gorst/Kristina Tkach pairing, you might want to watch out for the Yapp/Lu partnership.
Lu’s trip to the winners’ circle went through Marge Soash (0), Cuellar (3), Palmoa Santana (1) and Jessica Human (1) to arrive at the hot seat match versus Jennifer Berzinski to whom she gave up two racks to claim the seat. Adriana Villar, who lost her opening match to Cuellar and won eight on the loss side (shutting out three and surviving a double hill match against Helene Caukin), challenged Lu in the finals. Lu shut her out to claim the event title.
In addition to the 218 participants in the three events (with some duplication), tour representatives thanked title sponsor Meucci Cues, the ownership and staff at Rack’s for their hospitality, Outsville, JB Cases, Carlos Sanchez productions, Fort Worth Billiards Superstore and Clutch Shot Billiards Apparel.
Going into the PRP Nineball Open last weekend (Sept. 14-18) at the Exe Boston Hotel in Zaragoza, Spain, the struggle for a 3rd place spot on the Mosconi Cup’s European team, defined, as of August 31, by the Nineball World Rankings, was something of a race between Austria’s Mario He and Spain’s Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz. Both made it undefeated through two separate knockout rounds of the 128-entrant field in Spain. They both went on, undefeated to the finals where Sanchez-Ruiz prevailed to claim the event title, his fourth major title of the year.
With the USA’s Shane Van Boening and Germany’s Joshua Filler holding the top two spots in those Nineball World Rankings and being too far ahead in the rankings to be unseated, each Mosconi Cup team will select two more from the list at the conclusion of the final three ranking events; The Euro Tour Dynamic Billiards Slovenia Open in Lasko, Slovenia (Oct. 1-3), the Sandcastle 9-Ball Open at Sandcastle Billiards in Edison, NJ (Oct. 6-8) and the US Open Pool Championship at Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City, NJ (Oct. 10-15). With Austria’s Albin Ouschan, who did not compete in Spain, currently in the #3 position in the World Rankings and in the driver’s seat to claim a second spot on the Mosconi Cup team, the third selected seat continues to be a struggle between Sanchez-Ruiz (currently #4) and He (#5). Though at the moment, Sanchez-Ruiz has a commanding lead and seems likely to draw the third pick, it might well continue into next week’s Slovenia Open and depending on whether the two opt for a trip to New Jersey afterwards, it could end up on this side of the Atlantic.
Sanchez-Ruiz and He emerged from separate brackets to advance to the PRP Nineball Open’s final draw of 32. Sanchez-Ruiz, after being awarded an opening round bye, defeated two of his fellow countrymen, Manuel Fernandez and Gabriel Carral 9-2 to qualify for the single-elimination Phase Two (well over 50% of the field was from Spain). He was joined from the winners’ side of the bracket by countrymen Jose Alberto Delgado and Jose Castillo, Lithuania’s Pijus Labutis, Poland’s Wiktor Zielinski and Mieszko Fortunski, Marc Bijsterbosch from the Netherlands and Hungary’s Oliver Szolnoki.
In the other Phase 1 bracket, Mario He (also awarded a bye) defeated Spaniards Amalia Matas 9-4 and Mayte Ropero 9-7 to be among the winners’ side competitors to advance. Germany’s Ralf Souquet was on that list, too, as were Poland’s Konrad Juszczyszyn, Switzerland’s Ronald Regli, Spain’s David Alcaide and Jonas Souto, Estonia’s Denis Grabe and, also in the running for that 3rd spot on the Mosconi Cup team, behind He, Alex Kazakis from Greece.
Sanchez-Ruiz’ toughest battle advancing to the event’s quarterfinals came in the opening round of the single-elimination Round 2, when Francisco Diaz chalked up eight racks against him. From there, it was relatively smooth sailing through Ivan Nunez 11-3 for Sanchez-Ruiz to arrive at his quarterfinal matchup versus Delgado. He, on the other hand, began his single-elimination advancement with two double hill matches against Portugal’s Sara Rocha and Spain’s Iker Echeverria, which he successfully negotiated to face Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Sanjin Pehlivanovic. Three competitors lurking behind Sanchez-Ruiz and He on the rankings list, appeared in the other two quarterfinals. Kazakis, immediately below He on the list, faced Denis Grabe (in the 20s on the list), as Szolnoki, immediately below Kazakis, met up with Zielinski, immediately behind him.
Sanchez-Ruiz downed Delgado 11-5 and in the semifinals, picked up Zielenski, who’d eliminated Szolnoki 11-8. He defeated Pehlivanovic 11-2 and drew Kazakis, who’d eliminated Grabe 11-7.
Assuring their spots on the rankings list, Sanchez-Ruiz and He advanced to the finals; Sanchez-Ruiz 11-5 over Zielinski and He 11-2 over Kazakis.
It was clear from the outset of the finals that Sanchez-Ruiz and He were playing for more than bragging rights at their local pub. He broke the initial rack and ran the table to open the scoring. Sanchez-Ruiz broke and won the second to create the first of only two ties in the race to 13.
Sanchez-Ruiz won the next four to go ahead 5-1, at which point the two of them embarked on a series of runs that narrowed that lead down to between two and three racks. He got within a single rack three times in that stretch, at 6-5, 7-6 and 8-7, but He’s win of rack #15 opened the door for Sanchez-Ruiz to head on out on a four-match run that put him on the hill, ahead by five at 12-7.
He, though, came right back and matched Sanchez-Ruiz’ longest run of the game at the start, winning five racks to force a single deciding game. He broke, but left himself with a low-percentage shot at the 1-ball, sitting north of and at a sharp angle to a side pocket. He played safe and began a two-ball safety battle that took up nearly half of the final match-time. Sanchez-Ruiz broke it up after He had given him an opening on the 2-ball that also opened the table. Sanchez-Ruiz ran them from there and claimed the event title.
The battle for the two remaining European Mosconi Cup slots (not counting the coach’s two wild-card picks), moves on to Lasko, Slovenia.
Jayson Shaw, Mika Immonen and defending champion Aloysius Yapp are all through to the last 16 of the Seybert’s Michigan Open, while Jasmin Ouschan, Allison Fisher and Margaret Fefilova are into the single elimination stage of the women’s event at the fourth 2022 stop on the Predator US Pro Billiard Series presented by CSI.
Fefilova followed her opening-day victory over Kelly Fisher with a 4-0, 4-1 win against Shanelle Loraine to come through the winners’ side of the draw and into the last 16. Karen Corr rolled back the years to beat Canada Open champion ‘Amber’ Chia Hua Chen by shootout for her place in the single elimination stage, and Allison Fisher defeated Kristina Tkach, also by shootout.
In the open event, Immonen produced a strong performance to beat Naoyuki Oi 4-0, 4-3 for a place in the single elimination stage. The Finnish Hall of Famer won the lag and ran three racks before a dry break allowed Oi out of his chair. However, a misplayed 1-ball bank left a 1/10 combo for Immonen to win the set.
In a reversal of the first set, Oi took the first three racks of the second. However, Immonen was determined to avoid the shootout and put together a brilliant four-pack to win the set 4-3.
“That is probably the best I have played in a little while,” said Immonen. “It was nice to come out of the gates strong and put a three pack on him. He got into the game a little bit in the second set and was 3-0 up. I made a few mistakes but I finally ran out and broke and ran three to close the door to him. When you win the first set, the worst case is you go to shootout, but it was nice to close the door.”
Chang Jung-Lin was taken to a shootout by Sharik Sayed after their first two sets finished 4-1, 2-4. Sayed had sent Carlo Biado to the losers’ side earlier in the day with a 4-3 shootout win, but wasn’t as sharp from the spot against Chang, missing his first two as Chang made three in three to advance to the last 16.
Yapp and Shaw both also needed shootouts to advance. Yapp, winner of this event last fall, won 4-1, 1-4, 3-2 against Bader Alawadhi and Shaw was a 4-2, 1-4, 4-3 winner against Pijus Labutis.
Fedor Gorst, Vitaliy Patsura, Robbie Capito and Joven Bustamante complete the eight players who have made it through to the last 16 from the winners’ side, with three rounds of play on Friday set to determine the other half of the single elimination draw.
Among the big-name players returning on the losers’ side are Alex Pagulayan, who lost in a shootout to Ukraine’s Vitaliy Patsura on Wednesday, John Morra, who was defeated 4-0, 4-1 by Shaw, and Biado after his defeat to Sayed.
Recent World Women’s 10-Ball Championship runner-up Wei Tzu-Chien is among the players who join Fefilova, Corr, Allison Fisher and Ouschan in reaching the last 16 without defeat.
Play continues from 10am local time on Friday, with six more matches to be broadcast live on watchbilliard.tv and the World Billiard TV YouTube channel.
The Predator Germany Open has reached the single elimination stage after players battled through the last double elimination rounds of the Pro Billiard Series event on Thursday.
Austria’s Jasmin Ouschan had to win through three rounds and will now face two-time Pro Billiard Series champion Kelly Fisher in the quarter-finals of the Women’s Division.
The Open division moves to single elimination for the last 32 and Germany’s World Junior Champion Moritz Neuhausen won 4-3, 4-1 against Hong Kong’s Ip Tung Pong to make it five players from the home country to reach the second stage. Ralf Souquet had won through the winners’ side of the bracket and will now face Mahmut Sami Koylu of Turkey. Can Salim also came from the winners’ side and will face German countryman Tobias Bongers, who scored a win against Vincent Gomez to reach the single elimination phase. Yuma Dorner is the fifth German into the last 32 and will play Mateusz Sniegocki.
Both divisions of the Predator Germany Open have added money of €45,400 and both champions will earn €20,000, along with a spot at the 2023 World 10-Ball Championship for the Open winner and a spot in the 2022 World Women’s 10-Ball Championship for the Women’s Division winner.
In the Women’s Division, Ouschan won a shootout against Kim Witzel and then defeated Angeline Magdalena Ticoalu to meet Amalia Matas for a place in the quarter-finals. Matas already has a Women’s EuroTour title this year but her run in Germany was ended with a straight-sets defeat to Ouschan. Germany’s Veronika Ivanovskaia is drawn against Bojana Sarac.
Among the players to reach the final 32 of the Open division is Finland’s Petri Makkonen, a winner on the EuroTour in 2015. He had been defeated on the first day of play by Saudi Arabia’s Khalid Alghamdi and the Finn then had to battle through three rounds on the losers’ side, which culminated in a shootout against Alex Montpellier of France.
Makkonen won the first set 4-2 but France’s Montpellier, who came to the losers’ qualification round after a shootout defeat against Pijus Labutis, took advantage of Makkonen’s struggles in the second set to win 4-1. That was the end of the tournament for Montpellier, as Makkonen regrouped and didn’t miss in the shootout while his French opponent missed on each of his last two innings.
Play resumes at 9am local time in Bremen, Germany, and Friday’s play on the TV table will commence with Nick van den Berg facing Mickey Krause.
