2005 Derby City All Around Winner Efren Reyes
Efren Reyes has won the half-million dollar first prize of the IPT World Open 8-Ball Championship in an error-filled final that saw neither player ever able to gain any lasting momentum. The final score of 8-6 for Reyes saw an amazing fourteen racks broken with a ball falling only four times. Ten dry breaks frustrated both players.
Morris seemed to be truly snakebitten. His normally reliable break acted treasonous today and he scratched three times on the snap to hand Efren Reyes easy outs. Reyes was not at all the player we are used to seeing as his position play kept him in trouble. He told us that his nerves made his arm feel “strange” and he just could not control the cue ball.
One of the critical turning points came late in the match when Morris played a safety. He attempted to hide Reyes from his only remaining ball, the eight ball, but left a very small window for Reyes to squeeze through. Reyes made the shot but a very sharp-eyed referee determined that he had bruised the neighboring fifteen ball and that gave the game and the break to Morris. The next snap was one of the ones that Morris scratched on, however, and so momentum never had a chance to find the Morris corner.
There were very few break and runs in the match, but Efren got one when he needed it. Leading 7-6 he broke and was fortunate to have a ball get kissed into a pocket. From there he managed the table the best he had all day and never let Morris out of his seat. Asked what his plans were for the money he said: “My children need to remodel their house.” Must be one heck of a house.
File photo courtesy of Diana Hoppe – Pool Pics by Hoppe
