The Ozone Billiards Predator 9-Ball Tour took the 7 train to Queens last weekend, March 26-27, for their fifth stop of their season. For each of the tour stops, the event is split into two separate tournaments: one for pros and the other for amateurs. The amateur event started at 1:00 pm on Saturday, and drew a full field of 64 players and the Pro event drew 14 Open and Pro players.
It is clear that the amateur pool scene is thriving, which is a good sign that pool players are shaking off their rust and getting back into the game. You can also see more new players stepping up to compete for the first time. Case in point, Tony Robles was excited to say that they filled up the 128 player field for the first-ever Empire State Amateur 9-ball Championships, won by Kevin Guimond.
Moving onto the event at Masters, there were several players showing stand-out performances, including Christopher Chang, Bob Schlott, Dinko Busanich, Scott Simonetti, Mark Finkelstein. Victor Nau, and Alberto Estevez.
The two-day event brought back a total of 16 players on Sunday to play for top honors. Victor Nau clutched out a tight 7-6 win over-up-and-coming player Michael Yednak, lining up a match up with Dinko Busanich. Dinko, whose game has been much-improved, impressively knocked the favored Victor Nau to the one loss side 7-3.
Matthew Harricharan seemed to be unstoppable on this day… going through Asif Mostafa 7-3, Luis Novas 7-5, Michael Hertz 7-6, Bob Schlott 7-6, Christopher Chang 7-2, and ultimately Dinko Busavich 7-3. This impressive run put Matthew in the finals undefeated, where he would wait for two matches to finish on the one-loss side
On the left side of the chart, Victor Nau was not able to stop Alberto Estevez, who was impressive in the 7-5 win, as well as for making a strong run through the one-loss side. Alberto continued his hot hand, as he rolled over Dinko Busavich 7-3 in the semifinal match.
The win put him in the finals with Matthew Harricharan. Alberto had a strong break going for him, and he showed the composure and shot selection of a seasoned veteran. In the final match, Albert's firepower was too much for Matthew to handle, as he went on to cap off an impressive 9-4 win in the finals.
1st: Alberto Estevez $1,000
2nd: Matthew Harricharan $600
3rd: Dinko Busanich $400
4th: Victor Nau $300
5/6th: Christopher Chang $250
7/8th: Michael Yednak, Mike Ettl $175
13-16th: Stew Warnock, Scott Simonetti, Luis Novas, Nicholas Chan $100
In the Pro 10-ball Event, Oscar Bonilla earned a clutch win over Joey Korsiak, 8-6, to get a chance to come back on Sunday. Tony Robles topped Mike Miller 8-6, lining up a match up with Oscar. Oscar proceeded to beat Tony 8-7 for the hot seat.
Kwa Nguyen shook off some rust after taking some time away from the game to come back strong. Kwa made a statement by defeating top NY player Frankie Hernandez 8-7.
Joey Korsiak was his next opponent, who was too much for Kwa to handle as Joey clutched out the set 8-7. Jorge Rodriguez then topped Joey 8-6 before falling to Tony Robles 8-4 in the semifinal.
In the finals Tony, defeated Oscar Bonilla 8-4, while also regaining the lead in the point standings for the season.
For more information on the Predator 9-Ball Tour, please logon to: www.predator9balltour.com
Tony Robles and the Predator 9-ball Tour would like to thank their sponsors: Predator Cues, Poison Cues, Ozone Billiards, Delta-13 Racks, The Seminole Tribe of Florida, The Seminole Pro Tour, Poolonthenet.com, Digital Ink Printing, Billiards Press, RJH Custom Cues, Jim Murnak Cue Cases, Go4Pool.net, and NYCgrind.com.
The next Ozone Billiards Predator Tour event will be at Master Billiards in Queens, NY April 24-25.
Open/Pro Event Final Results:
1st: Tony Robles $800
2nd: Oscar Bonilla $400
3rd: Jorge Rodriguez $225
4th: Joey Korsiak $100
