Bulgaria’s Georgi Georgiev goes undefeated to take WNT Seattle Open title

Eberle, Tourangeau & Baker compete following travel from Spokane 9-Ball Open to Seattle

It’s about a four-hour trip from Spokane to Seattle, WA, along an interstate (I-90) that cuts through the Cascade Mountains in what’s known as the Snoqualmie Pass. Along the way, travelers are exposed to some stunning scenery that includes a bridge, over which wildlife can travel, protected from the dangers of speeding vehicles as they move about in their natural habitat. 

The top three finishers who competed in the Spokane 9-Ball Open on Labor Day weekend (Max Eberle, Stan Tourangeau and Blake Baker) would likely have passed over the bridge, either in the air or on the highway as they made their way west to compete in the World Nineball Tour’s Seattle Open this past weekend (Sept. 6-8). 

It was a moderately successful trip, financially, for two of them. Eberle lost a double-hill match to Jeremy Long in the single-elimination, Stage 2 of the event and finished in the four-way tie for 5^th place. Baker lost his first Stage 2 match to Nicholas De Leon and finished among the eight competitors tied for 9^th place. Baker defeated Eberle 9-7 in the last qualifying round for single-elimination from the winners’ side. Eberle advanced to single elimination from the loss side. Tourangeau was defeated in a double-hill battle versus James Davee in the last qualifying round for advancement to Stage 2 from the loss side of the original bracket.

Moving on from those points in time, it was Bulgaria’s Georgi Georgiev, who went undefeated to claim the Seattle Open title, but not before Lukas Fracasso-Verner, who came to the final undefeated, fought a fierce, double-hill battle in a race-to-13. The WNT ranking event, the first in the Pacific Northwest, drew 64 entrants to OX Billiards in Seattle.

It was a three-match march for eight competitors to qualify for single-elimination on the winners’ side of the original bracket. A bit more, dependent on how long another eight competed on the loss side. In races to 9, Georgiev’s path to qualification went through Sue Orr (2), Michael Deitchman (1) and Simon Pickering (5). Had there been an additional qualification round, Blake Baker would have competed against Georgiev. Both advanced to single elimination.

Fracasso-Verner’s trip to advancement and eventually, the final, was almost sidetracked in the opening round of play. Shucheng Chao put up a double-hill fight. Fracasso-Verner survived, got the ‘message,’ so to speak and gave up just a single rack over his next 19 games, to Daniel Lybeck (1) and Sean Lewis (0), advancing to single elimination, paired in the same mini-16 bracket with Oscar Dominguez.

Also advancing to single elimination from the winners’ side of the original bracket were Tyler Styer, Sam Henderson, Jonas Souto and Mason Koch.

On the loss side, Max Eberle picked up the one victory he needed to advance, downing Jack Kiske 7-1 and moving on, paired with Simon Pickering. Stan Tourangeau, playing in the only match he needed to advance, lost his double-hill bout with James Davee, who advanced to single elimination, along with Nicholas DeLeon. Also advancing from the loss side were Ryan Carden, Jeremy Long, Keith Yip and Daniel Sardoncillo.

Four-match march to the finals in Stage 2 yields thrilling final

Coming into the Sweet 16, single-elimination Stage 2 of this WNT Seattle Open, three competitors were the most obvious favorites to win, based on their position as the top three Fargo-rated players in the remaining field. In order, they were Jonas Souto (788), Tyler Styer (783) and Oscar Dominguez (780). Two of them survived the opening round, advancing to (possibly later) matchup in the semifinals. 

It was Tyler Styer, who lost his opening round battle, 11-4 to Jeremy Long, who advanced to the quarterfinals against Max Eberle. Souto downed Ryan Carden 11-3 in the opening round, advancing to face Daniel Sardoncillo in another quarterfinal match. Dominguez eliminated Simon Pickering 11-7 to face Fracasso-Verner, while Georgiev, who’d downed Keith Yip in the opening round 11-8, advanced to face Nicholas De Leon in the remaining quarterfinal.

Souto and Dominguez were eliminated in the quarterfinals. Souto fell 11-7 to Sardoncillo, who advanced to a semifinal against Fracasso-Verner, who’d eliminated Dominguez 11-9. Long and Eberle battled to double hill in their quarterfinal, with Long advancing to the semifinals against Georgiev, who’d defeated De Leon 11-3.

Georgiev defeated De Leon 11-9. Fracasso-Verner joined him in the race-to-13 final with an 11-4 victory over Sardoncillo.

Races to 13 are generally, though not always, subject to ‘mood swings,’ during which one opponent or the other manages to establish runs of varied lengths that delay any clear impression of an obvious winner. Fracasso-Verner’s opening salvo of three straight racks might have carried more ‘weight’ in a race to 9, or even 11, but in the trek to 13, players and the capacity crowd in the room were well aware that it was just the beginning. 

Georgiev made that abundantly clear by responding with seven in a row, which yielded that match’s first of only three ties at 3-3 and proved to be the longest ‘run’ of the match. Things tightened up considerably at that point, but as dominant a performance as those seven racks were, Fracasso-Verner repeated his opening run of three to pull within one at 7-6.

They traded racks back and forth, increasing the lead to two and reducing it back down to one, three times, to a 10-8 lead for Georgiev. Fracasso-Verner down by two, again, won two in a row to create the match’s second tie. 

Georgiev looked to re-establish the ‘two steps forward, one step back’ pattern of the match, winning rack 21 and then, significantly, rack 22, which put him on the hill at 12-10. 

Not to be outdone, Fracasso-Verner closed it to within one (maintaining the pattern) and then, equally significant, dropped four balls on the break of rack 24, and then continued on to create the match’s third, final and this time, double-hill tie.

Fracasso-Verner’s break of the last rack proved fatal. He dropped two balls, but left himself with a very low-percentage shot at the 2-ball. He played safe, but not safe enough. Georgiev exploited a window between two balls that offered him a chance to hit the 2-ball, but little or no chance to put it in a hole. He took the shot and when the proverbial dust settled, a beneficial roll nestled the cue ball up against the 4-ball. The 2-ball was inches away but impossible to hit straight. 

Fracasso-Verner took some time looking it over, measuring the ‘kick’ off the far rail that he hoped would hit the 2-ball and put it into the opposite side pocket. It didn’t come close, but the cue ball kicked back off the rail, bounced off the edge of the 2-ball and shot right into a corner pocket.

Everybody in the building knew that, in effect, it was over. Georgiev took ball in hand. Three hours and 38 minutes after its final match had begun, Georgiev dropped the tournament’s last ball, claiming the WNT Seattle 9-Ball Open title.

Room owner Mike Dominguez and partners Jaime Miller, Christian Younger and Phuc Dang thanked their OX Billiards staff for their assistance with the event, along with sponsors CueTec, Matchroom Sports, ANDY Cloth, Littman Lights, Sandro Menzel Photography, and Table Filters Billiards Service (Zach Jonas).

OX Billiards opened in August of 2022, with a mission of Dominguez and his partners to help raise the standard of cue sports in Seattle, the Pacific Northwest and across the US.

“Teaming up with Matchroom and the World Nineball Tour is an important step for us to take in that direction,” noted Dominguez. “The Seattle 9-Ball Open showcased local players like Daniel Sardoncillo, who defeated the event’s #2 seed, Jonas Souto, and we provided a world stage for local commentators and players in the commentary booth. Christian Youngers and Jonas Souto even commented one rack all in Spanish.”

“All three days hosted a sold-out capacity crowd with a seating area large enough to put in risers for a stadium-like atmosphere,” he added.  “As the first WNT ranking event in the Pacific Northwest, we hit all the goals we set out to accomplish.”

Go to discussion...