Monday play is complete at the International Pool Tour North American 8-Ball Open and another group of 40 players have been eliminated. A large number of the WPBA players found themselves on the outide by the end of Monday play as only four of the fifteen WPBA players advanced. Allison Fisher was one of those players, with a perfect 4-0 record in her group. Other WPBA players moving on were Sarah Ellerby, Loree Jon Jones and Gerda Hofstatter. Other top players not making the cut on Monday included Mike Massey, Ernesto Dominguez, Grady Mathews, Ronnie Wiseman, Shane Van Boening, Charlie Bryant and BCA Junior National Champion Austin Murphy. Murphy found himself in a late night match against Danny Basavich with the winner advancing and the loser being eliminated. Murphy and Basavich fought to a hill-hill score before Basavich clinched the match with a win in the case game.
The cream definitely rose to the top on Monday as perfect 4-0 performances were turned in by Oliver Ortmann, Shannon Daulton, Johnny Archer, Ronnie Alcano, Dennis Orcollo, Karl Boyes, Marlon Manalo, Mike Sigel, Francisco Bustamante, Efren Reyes, Rico Diks, Anthony Ginn, Alex Pagulayan, Keith Bennett and Allison Fisher.
With the end of play on Monday, round one is now complete and the 120 advancing players will be in action on Tuesday when another 60 will be eliminated by end of the play.
Up to the minute match results as well as photos and a sportswriters blog are available on the IPT website.
