It didn't take long for Oscar Dominguez to snare his first major 9-ball title. He came close earlier this year in Valley Forge (3rd place) and he played even stronger this weekend at the Turning Stone Classic XIII to capture first place.
Dominguez started the day with an appointment with Shane Van Boening on the streaming table. A match with arguably the hottest player on the US circuit for the last 3 years could be a lot to fade for a young player looking for their first major title. But Dominguez took it in stride and came away with a 9-5 win.
From there, Dominguez's game just seemed to get stronger and he bulldozed Zion Zvi 9-2 to take the hot-seat.
This event was a coming out party of sorts for Zvi. A relative unknown to the fans outside of the East Coast, Zvi moved to the states from Israel three months ago but has been playing the game for over four years. If fans did not know who he was prior to this event, they sure know who he is now. Zvi crushed Corey Deuel 9-4 to earn another shot at Dominguez in the finals. Zvi played some great pool all week and add some bad rolls for Deuel in their match and you had a sure fire recipe for Zvi moving on.
As strong as Zvi had been playing, Dominguez gave him no chance to show any of his previously displayed firepower. Dominguez had gone to his Dad Ernesto before the finals and asked for any advice he could offer. Daddy Dominguez told his son to stay within the game and just play each ball "one at a time". Junior did just that as he played each ball as if it was the most important shot of the match. Oscar's safeties were perfect all match, and his shotmaking and position play were just as strong.
Oscar led 4-0 before Zvi got on the board. And Oscar kept the pressure on. Zvi would earn a game here and there, but Dominguez never looked like this match was in dispute as he cruised to a 13-5 win.
Dominguez earned $8000 for first place, while Zvi settled for $5000 in second place prize money.
