Mika Immonen
Robb Saez sent the Iceman, Mika Immonen, to the loss side in the opening round of play in the Sunday, June 2 Open event on the Predator Tour. Immonen came back from a five-match march on the loss side to meet and defeat him in the finals to claim the top prize. The $750-addded event, run in conjunction with an Amateur event (story elsewhere), drew a short field of 11 entrants to Raxx Pool Room, Sports Bar & Grill in West Hempstead, NY.
With Immonen out of the way, Saez advanced to face Steve Wright among the winners' side final four. Tour director Tony Robles, in the meantime, squared off against Vikram Dasari in the other winners' side semifinal. Saez downed Wright 7-3 and in the battle for the hot seat, met up with Robles, who'd sent Dasari west 7-1. Saez got into the hot seat with a 7-5 victory over Robles, and awaited his re-match against Immonen.
Immonen opened his loss-side campaign with a 7-1 victory over Frankie Hernandez, and followed that with a shutout over Rich Lang, which set him up to face Wright. Dasari drew Keith Adamik, who'd gotten by Jerry Tarantola 7-5 and Anna Grintsuk 7-4.
Adamik handed Dasari his second straight loss 7-3, as Immonen did likewise to Wright 7-1. Immonen took the quarterfinal match versus Adamik 7-2 and then defeated Robles in the semifinals 7-3.
In the extended-race finals, the Iceman reached nine games first, extending the match to 11 games. He completed his successful bid 11-9 over Saez to claim the event title.
