Tommy Kennedy
Seems like all he needed was a haircut.
Tommy Kennedy got one from his daughter and went out and won the Poison Florida State 10-Ball Championships on the weekend of January 12-13, defeating, for the first time in his life, Corey Deuel, twice.
"Really?" said Deuel, after the match, unaware that this was Kennedy's first victory against him.
"I'm amazed," said Kennedy, a few hours later.
Playing in his first major tournament since the US Open, Kennedy went undefeated through a field of 48, on-hand for the $4,000-added event, hosted by Zingales in Tallahassee, FL. Primarily a 9-ball player, Kennedy has been "warming" to 10-ball recently, and this win just might be a signal that he's right at home with it now.
He and Deuel met first in the hot seat match. Kennedy had sent Justin Hall to the loss bracket 9-4. Deuel had defeated James Roberts 9-5. With memories of 13 or 14 previous meetings stepping up to the table when he did, Kennedy overcame what might well have been a more daunting task than winning the tournament; defeating Deuel for the first time. He did so 9-6 and sat in the hot seat, feeling pretty good about a potential re-match, one would imagine.
Meanwhile, Hall and Roberts have moved over and picked up the tournament's sub-plot, otherwise known as Larry Nevel and Mike Davis. These two both lost in the opening round of play; Nevel to Mike Delawder (double hill) and Davis to Rod Rentz (9-5). They're both in the midst of an eight-match, loss-side winning streak that will take them to the Quarterfinals. In the matches that will determine the four-way tie for ninth place, they draw each other's early nemesis. Davis downs Delawder (for Nevel) 9-6, while Nevel eliminates Rentz (for Davis) 9-3.
They move on; Davis defeating J.R. Rossman 9-3, while Nevel eliminates David Grossman 9-6. Davis gets James Roberts, fresh from the winners' side, Nevel gets Justin Hall. Once Davis defeated Roberts 9-5 and Nevel got by Hall 9-6, someone's eight-match, loss-side winning streak was about to end.
It was Nevel who moved on, after a 9-6, quarterfinal win over Davis giving him a shot against Deuel in the semifinals. Deuel stopped Nevel's run at nine matches, defeating him 9-6 for his own second chance against Kennedy.
Kennedy took an early 4-1 lead, which he never relinquished. He'd win five of the next seven, punctuating his first victory over Deuel, after many years, with a second victory in a matter of hours.
"This is one of the biggest (tournament wins) I've had in a long time," said Kennedy, adding a 'thank you' to Chris Nitti Cues, which supplied him with his cue for the event, and with which he'd been putting in 50-60 hours of practice, prior to the event.
Tour director Tony Crosby thanked Mike Zingale and his staff for their hospitality, along with title sponsors Poison Cues, as well as Simonis Cloth, Aramith Balls and FloridaPoolTableMovers.com
