Las Vegas, Nevada- Giant names started going over to the wrong side of the board in the A.M. sessions first with John Schmidt as he fell to Filipino wizard Alex Pagulayan 11-8. Pagulayan would later advance over Tony Chohan 11-5. Local westerner "Big Wave" Dave Hemmah won his first two matches including a win over the recently hot Ronnie Wiseman 11-5. Charlie Williams took care of San Diego top dog Louis Ulrich 11-7 but then fell his next match to Warren Kiamco 11-4. Al Lapena defeated fellow Filipino Marlon Manalo while Filipino nightmare Francisco Bustamante indulged in some Canadian Bacon as he destroyed Canada's Tyler Edey 11-2 and then gobbled up Canadian Jeff Kennedy.
But the real story of the day was the amount of upsets in the opening rounds. In the second part of the top bracket, the seemingly obvious favorites were #5 UPA seed Rob Saez and #12 seed Tony Crosby. Unfortunately for the paper favorites, it was the day for unseeded players as young LA native Oscar Dominguez(son of legendary Mexican player Ernesto Dominguez) defeated Saez. Saez had defeated Oscar's father at the US Pro Tour Championship held in Los Angeles in March,and fittingly Ernesto's son avenged him. And then another upset followed an upset with 13 year old USA Junior Champion Austin Murphy defeating Oscar Dominguez 11-5. Walter Glass, a throw back pro from way back when, escaped Steve Lillis 11-10 and then unseated UPA pro Crosby 11-8. Glass and Murphy will be replacing Saez and Crosby in the winner's side third round. Other upset highlights included Lee Heuwagen over Parica, Stevie Moore over Dennis Orcullo, and Jeff Kennedy over Rodney Morris.
Shane Van Boening continues his hot streak with two wins today including second round 11-5 against #10 seed Troy Frank . He was scheduled to meet #1 USA Ranked Deuel in the thirs round tomorrow but will face Ernesto Dominguez instead after Dominguez demolished Deuel 11-2.
The evening ended at midnight with a fitting last upset. Super unknown Demetrius Jalatis had no ones attention after trailing Thorsten Hohmann 6-0 and later 7-1. 1 hour later Jelatis held the lead 9-7 after 8 consecutive game wins. Making some crucial difficult shots, Jalatis showed world class poise and defeated Hohmann 11-9 to advance undefeated to Day 2.
Action continues tomorrow with Jeremy Jones facing Stevie Moore, Luc Salvas versus Ernesto Dominguez, Robles vs Bustamaente, John Morra versus Mika Immonen and many more.
File photo courtesy of Diana Hoppe - Pool Pics by Hoppe
