Tyler Styer (Photo courtesy of Erwin Dionisio)
Day one of the International 9-Ball Open is in the books and the first round of play is complete.
While the day saw three Mosconi Cup hopefuls sent to the one loss side early (Mitch Ellerman, Shane McMinn and Billy Thorpe), it was Tyler Styer who may have stated his case the loudest as to why he belongs on Team USA this year. Styer was faced with the unenviable task of facing Niels Feijen on the Accu-Stats streaming table. Feijen already has a World Cup of Pool title on his resume for this year, and would certainly be happy to add the inaugural International Open title to his long list of titles. Styer came out on fire in this match and was ahead 8-3 before the crowd knew what was happening. A fluked ball from Feijen in rack twelve was the spark that he needed and it was then his turn to make a run. “He started walking around the table with confidence, and I thought uh-oh” Styer was overheard saying after the match. “Uh-oh” was right, as Feijen quickly knotted the score at 8-8 and looked to be on his way to the first round win. Styer wasn’t done though. With the vocal crowd cheering his every rack, and both Team USA Captain Johan Ruijsink and Co-Captain Jeremy Jones watching, Styer wrested control of the match away from Feijen and went on to win the match 11-9. Jones couldn’t help but sit up and take notice of Styer’s play. “For him to be playing like this on the feature table against a tough opponent, he is definitely making a statement” said Jones late in the match.
Following the Feijen/Styer match, another Team USA hopeful Billy Thorpe was hoping to duplicate Styer’s performance in his match with Ko Pin-Yi. Thorpe played perfect and raced to an early 3-0 lead. Unfortunately for Thorpe, the races are to eleven here at the International Open as Ko clawed back to win the match 11-9.
Earlier matches in the day on Sunday saw Ralf Souquet sent to the one loss side by Johnny Archer as Archer continues his “Don’t Call It A Comeback” tour. Chinese Taipei’s sharpshooter Yu Lung Chang was also sent to the one loss side, after a one sided 11-6 loss to John Schmidt. Two of the Filipino monsters in the event were taken to hill-hill by tough opponents with Carlo Biado beating Finland’s Jani Siekkinen and James Aranas beating Marc Bijsterbosch from The Netherlands.
While Day One had it’s fair share of marquee matchups, Day Two looks even better with winner’s side matches that include…
Alex Kazakis vs Earl Strickland
Jung Lin Chang vs Rodney Morris
Watch select matches with the online PPV coverage from Accu-Stats and follow all of the action at this year's event with our online coverage including real time scoring and live brackets.
