 John Morra could be well on his way to another win |
The $10,000 Added Canadian 9-Ball Tour made its first visit to the nation's capital for event number three. Tailgators in Ottawa, Ontario, boasted over 20,000 square feet of space and 28 extremely well spaced pool tables that were at the disposal of tournament officials. This made for a very smooth and fast paced event or the 80 competitors that registered. With top seeds John Morra, Tyler Edey, Eric Hjorleifson and last year's tour champ, Edwin Montal all in contention, the third stop on the eight event tour was going to be tough sledding indeed.
Day one kicked off with most of the top seeds justifying their favoritism apart from former Canadian Open champion Erik Hjorleifson who suffered a hill-hill loss to Berry McLean of Winnipeg and Tyler Edey of Calgary who was sent to the loser's bracket by local sharpshooter, Patrick De Repentigny. Another top seed fell out of the tournament, just not by the conventional means. A very disgruntled Alain Martel withdrew from the event citing a total lack of form that he could no longer accept in competition. The popular Martel will be missed as he is definitely a crowd favorite among the fan base here in Ottawa.
As day one wound down, 18 year old John Morra would stand alone as the pre event top seed and still favorite to win tour event #3. Coming into the tournament as points leader it was looking as though he would be adding to that advantage before he would be leaving Ottawa. Young Morra would be accompanied by a trio of long shots that included Louis Fazekas, Shannon Ducharme and Francis Crevier, all looking to make their mark on the winners side. All three had notable wins over favored opposition but none was more impressive than Crevier's run as he notched up wins over such distinguished players as Chris Orme, Danny Hewitt and Alain Lessard. If Sunday would allow him to maintain this type of form, he could well be the only threat to Morra becoming the first ever back to back tour winner.
Still left to battle it out Sunday from the one loss side are Alain Lessard, Jeff White, Luc Salvas, Jarrod Spence, Edwin Montal, John Jorgensen, Andrew Attard and Adam Smith.
