The 39th Simonis/Aramith U.S. Open 9-Ball Championship saw a few changes this year. First, the 9-Ball is being racked on the spot to de-power the break shot and to remove soft breaking. Then, we are playing all-ball fouls this year and the 9 only counts as a win on the break if it does not go into the bottom corner pockets.
The break was a work in progress for almost every player as they experimented throughout their match with different break spots on the headstring, and different speeds and contact points on the 1 ball. This resulted in dry break after dry break, and certainly answered the organizers concern about stopping the wing ball dropping every time on the break.
The first top seed to get relegated to the losers bracket was World #1 ranked Niels Feijen who went down to Max Eberle 11-8 in the first TV match of the day. Feijen has been winning a lot of late, and played very well in his match against Eberle but Eberle kept making clutch shots at critical moments and scratches by Feijen at two critical points in the match spelled the end of Feijen's stay on the right side of the board. Eberle recently returned from a successful trip playing in the Philippines and the trip appears to have affected his game for the better. "The trip made me more resilient to pressure" Eberle said. "If you can run out with a sticky cue, sweaty face, talcum all over and players standing by the table, you can run out anywhere" Eberle explained.
This is an important event for the prospective USA Mosconi Cup team members. They are all here with coach Mark Wilson watching. The team members will be announced following this event, so they all want to show their stuff for the boss. Jeremy Sossei was first out and he had no opportunity to show his considerable skills as his opponent failed to show for the match.
Corey Deuel played well in his first match and won 11-8 over Sean Morgan. Oscar Dominguez was not so fortunate. He ran into a super-tough Jonathan Pinegar who came on very strong near the end of the match to send Dominguez to the one-loss side 11-9. Justin Bergman looked unstoppable in his 11-0 whitewash of Chris Cantrall, but Justin Hall had a much tougher time with Hanni Al Howri as the tough player from the UAE took Hall to hill-hill before Hall pulled out the win. John Schmidt fought hard, but couldn't get past Jason Klatt in their 11-9 match on the TV table. The night ended on a sour note for Mosconi hopeful Brandon Shuff as he came back from a late deficit to tie his match with Kenichi Uchigaki at hill-hill before Uchigaki won the case game.
One of the most colorful guys out there, Larry Phlegar, won his match against Canadian Randy Russell 11-8 but it could have been a larger margin if he had not missed several 9 ball shots. He would play well until the last shot and then get completely out of his normal rhythm and rush the last shot. Nevertheless, he hung in there and came out of the pits a happy man.
One match that caught the eye of the crowd was Majid V Majid. Popular player Imran Majid faced a new challenge in the form of Waleed Majid. W. Majid controlled this match the whole way, shot the lights out, and defeated I. Majid 11-4. He is a true force with which to be reckoned.
While a number of players struggled with the break, a handful of the top players seemed to have found the sweet spot, and are treating it as business as usual. Mike Dechaine and Darren Appleton seemed to be having no problem with the break. Mike trounced Tony Drago, who ended up on the wrong side of an 11-5 score line, and also having to watch Dechaine run a three pack in the process. Appleton also broke well against fellow Englishman So Shaw, and easily got the better of him 11-2.
Interesting matches coming up are: Skyler Woodward v Alex Pagulayan at 10:30 am Tuesday on the TV table and Efren Reyes v Jose Parica at 10:30 am Wednesday. While this match has not been announced on the TV table, logic dictates it deserves a home there.
Follow all of the action with our online brackets and real time scoring, and watch the PPV online at www.accu-stats.com
