Jon Rawlins, Fahad Alrawi and Albert Duran
Regional Tours being centered in specific areas of the country, usually attract a regular group of players who are familiar with each other from playing in stops on that tour, as well as other local events. Each stop typically comes down to which of the regulars is playing their best on that particular weekend. Once in a while though, a tour newbie dusts off his cue case and surprises everyone in the field. That was the case at the DFW 9-Ball Tour Tour Stop at Stixx and Stones Billiards in Lewisville, Texas on July 23rd – 24th.
Jon Rawlins, a regular in nearby Denton Texas, ponied up his $80 to enter his first DFW Tour Stop, and went undefeated through the field of 75 players. Rawlins kicked off the event with a 7-0 win over Jim Dixon and followed that up with wins over Joshua Paredes and Raven Rahman on Saturday.
Rawlins came back on Sunday and proved that Saturday was no fluke, as he defeated Alberto Nieto Garcia, Rachelle Dytko and Fahad Alrawi to get to the hot-seat match. Rawlins opponent for the hot-seat, Albert Duran, was on a bit of a roll himself. Duran, a Fargo 519 was getting weight from most opponents all weekend. He only needed to use that weight once, defeating Daniel Herring 4-5 in a first round 10-4 race. Duran went on to defeat Blake West, Pedro Mungia, Aaron Fleming, Jamie Welch and Tony Loeper to take his place in the hot-seat match. That hot-seat match was a 6-5 race and Duran would have needed the weight and more as Rawlins scored a 6-2 win to take the hot-seat.
Duran found Alrawi on the one loss side, and the two competitors went hill-hill before Duran scored the win to earn another shot at Rawlins in the finals. Unfortunately for Duran, the finals were a repeat of the hot-seat match, with Rawlins scoring another 6-2 win for first place.
The DFW 9-Ball Tour will be back in action on August 20th – 21st at Snookered Billiards in Frisco, Texas.
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