John Francisco, Ryan McCreesh and Moritz Neuhausen
His name has been popping up on payout lists a lot lately. It hasn’t exactly been like the proverbial ‘bolt out of the blue’ (a sudden lightning strike that comes out of a clear sky; sudden and unexpected). Germany’s Moritz Neuhausen popped up on AZBilliards’ radar for the first time in 2019, cashing with a 17th place finish at the Euro Tour’s Dynamic Billiards Veldhoven Open in the Netherlands. Two years later, he showed up in an American payout list for the first (recorded with us) time, finishing 65th at the US Open 9-Ball Tournament. Last year, he chalked up his best (recorded) earnings year, in which just shy of half (6 of 13) of his competitive winnings originated from US tournaments, including the Joss Tour, the American Straight Pool Championship, Pat Fleming’s International Open, and a second appearance at the US Open 9-Ball. He was also the winner of the 2022 Under-23 European 9-Ball Championship.
This past weekend (Saturday, April 1), he walked away from an undefeated run on the Garden State Pool Tour that put him over halfway to making 2023 his best earnings year, and it’s only April. The $200-added event drew 32 entrants to Rockaway Billiards in Rockaway, NJ.
Neuhausen did it while encountering five US competitors who didn’t exactly come like a ‘bolt out of the blue,’ either, although he may have seemed like that to them. He completed his six-match run to the finish line with an aggregate score of 42-9 (82%). Nobody chalked up more than two racks against him in races to 7 until he ran into Ryan McCreesh in the hot seat and finals. He got by Dave Hibbard (2), Jimmy Rivera (1) and Richard Ng (1) to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal against John Francisco.
McCreesh in the meantime, would finish as runner-up with an aggregate score of 42-17 (71%). He sent Carmelo (Carmen) Lombardo (5), Hunter Sullivan (3) and Paul Spaanstra (3) to the loss side to arrive at his winners’ side semifinal match against Sylvain Anichini.
Neuhausen advanced to the hot seat match by shutting out Francisco. About 45 minutes later, McCreesh joined him by defeating Anichini 7-4. An hour later, Neuhausen was in the hot seat after downing McCreesh 7-3.
On the loss side, Lombardo had followed his loss to McCreesh with a five-match winning streak that had recently eliminated Hoa Vu 6-1 and Spaanstra 6-2, and was about to come to an end thanks to the arrival of Francisco. Anichini picked up Mike Salerno, who’d defeated Jim Kearney 6-1 and survived a double hill fight against Levie Lampaan to reach him.
Salerno did not survive the double hill battle he waged against Anichini, who was then joined in the quarterfinal by Francisco, who’d defeated Lombardo 6-4. Two straight double hill matches followed, with Francisco knocking out Anichini in the quarterfinals and McCreesh finishing off Francisco in the semifinals.
Neuhausen was even stingier in the final than he’d been in the hot seat match. He downed McCreesh a second time 7-2 to claim the Garden State Pool Tour’s second Open event title.
Tour director Dave Fitzpatrick thanked the ownership and staff at Rockaway Billiards for their hospitality. The next stop on the Garden State Pool Tour, scheduled for this weekend (Sat., April 8) will be a Fargo 600 & Below 9-Ball event, hosted by Shooter’s Family Billiards in Wayne, NJ.
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