Juan Guzman and Kapriel Delimelkonoglu
Juan Guzman came back from a loss at the hands of Kapriel Delimelkonoglu to defeat him in the finals of a Tri-State Tour stop on Sunday, July 31. The $1,000-added event drew 39 entrants to Steinway Billiards in Astoria (Queens), NY.
Guzman, who finished the 2015-2016 Tri-State Tour standings in the #13 slot of the A+/A players on the tour, opened his campaign with victories over Kirill Safranov, Abel Rosario and Lidio Ramierez before running in to Delimelkonoglu (4th in the 2015-2016 B+ class) in a winners' side semifinal. Dany Recinos, in the meantime, faced Adrian Daniel. Delimelkonoglu sent Guzman to the loss side 7-5, and in the hot seat match, faced Recinos, who'd defeated Daniel 6-5. Delimelkonoglu claimed the hot seat 7-4 over Recinos, in what proved to be his last match victory.
Guzman opened the loss-side portion of his day with a match against Steve Kalloo, who'd defeated Ramierez, double hill, and Shawn Sookhai 7-5 to reach him. Daniel picked up Esteban Morrell, Jr., who'd gotten by Mario Lozano 6-4, and Jessica-Lynn Griebesland 6-3. Guzman and Daniel got right back to work, advancing to the quarterfinals; Guzman, 8-3 over Kalloo and Daniel, double hill over Morrell.
Guzman took the quarterfinal match 9-6 over Daniel, and then leapfrogged to his finals re-match against Delimelkonoglu when Recinos forfeited the semifinal match. In spite of the wait, Delimelkonoglu chalked up three straight to open the final match. Guzman came right back and won three of his own to tie it. They traded racks to a 5-5 tie, at which point Guzman ran another three to reach the hill at 8-5. Delimelkonoglu won the 14th game, but Guzman closed it out at 9-6 to claim the event title.
Tour representatives thanked Manny Stamatakis and his staff at Steinway Billiards, as well as sponsors Ozone Billiards, Sterling-Gaming, Kamui Tips, Ron Vitello, Phil Capelle, BlueBook Publishing, Human Kinetics, and Bloodworth Ball Cleaners. The next stop on the Tri-State Tour, scheduled for Saturday, August 6, will be hosted by Clifton Billiards in Clifton, NJ.
