Gabriels Open Goes to Hatch

Gabriels Open Goes to HatchDennis “The Hatchet Man” Hatch bested a field of 59 others to win the Gabriels Open 8-Ball Professional Players Championship, held at the Super Billiards Expo in Valley Forge, PA. Hatch, 35, has not won a championship event since 1998 but is a frequent face in the winner’s circle on the Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tour, as well as other regional events.Hatch sailed through the event unscathed until he met Mike Davis in the winners’-side finals late Saturday night, in which Davis defeated him 5-4, 5-3. Sunday’s matches began with the quarterfinals between Germany’s Ralf “The Surgeon” Souquet and defending champion Shawn Putnam. Though Putnam looked strong in practice beforehand, he went down hard in the first set 5-0 and only got 3 in the following set.Faced with “The Hatchet Man” in the semifinals, Souquet played his normal, careful game but had trouble with his break in the first set, allowing Hatch to reach a 4-1 lead. A scratch by Hatch—and some strong playing on his own part—was all Souquet needed to even the score, but a break and run-out gave Hatch the first set 5-4. A series of run-outs in the second set gave Souquet the second hill-hill set, but Hatch won the lag for the one-game tiebreaker and ran out for the win, advancing to the finals.Check out the Super Billiards Expo Image Gallery
In this rematch against Davis, Hatch was smooth and controlled. Though he came up empty on a few of his breaks, which usually spells disaster in a short-race, alternate-break format, Davis made a couple of errors, and Hatch was able to win the first set 5-3. The second set consisted mainly of break and run-outs, with neither player making an error. With the score at 4 apiece, Davis came up dry on his last break, and Hatch dished up to win the second set, title, and trophy.Results:1st Dennis Hatch $10,0002nd Mike Davis $6,0003rd Ralf Souquet $5,0004th Shawn Putnam $4,0005th Corey Deuel, Fabio Petroni $3,0007th Charlie Williams, Mika Immonen $2,0009th Tony Chohan, Evgeny Stalev, Johnny Archer, Charlie Bryant $1,50013th Corey Harper, Joe Tucker, Richard Broumpton, Hiroshi Takenaka $1,200Visit InsidePOOL for the latest news in the sport of billiards and pool.

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