Kirkwood Earns a Win

Kirkwood Earns a WinDark horse Jason Kirkwood won his first match today, a hill-hill nail-biter over Raj Hundal that dealt the Brit his first loss of the day. From holding a 7-4 lead, Kirkwood missed a crucial shot, and Hundal cleared the table. He then broke and ran the next two racks to knot the score at 7. A delicate safety battle ensued, ending with Hundal missing a simple straight-in shot that handed the match to Kirkwood.“I’m just frustrated—I’ve been playing terrible all day,” Kirkwood reported. “I’m very fortunate to win that match. I should have won eight-four, but I didn’t get out. He deserved to beat me, he should have beat me. I didn’t deserve it the way I played. I don’t know, for some reason I’m just not seeing the balls today … I’m really struggling. I’m plenty rested, I feel good—I don’t know what it is. Two more matches. Hopefully I can get at least one, but hopefully both.”IPT discussion forumDay 5 image galleryMatch scheduleEarl Strickland won his second match out of three today so far, dusting former snooker star Quinten Hann 8-1; however, his fellow Mosconi Cup teammate Rodney Morris lost to Evgeny Stalev 8-6. Morris’s one win today comes from an 8-6 victory over Jason Kirkwood.
Thorsten Hohmann escaped the clutches of Dee Adkins, winning their hill-hill battle and keeping alive with a 2-1 score for the day so far. But Germany’s Ralf Souquet lost 8-3 to Marcus Chamat and only has notched one win today.Rico Diks punished Shawn Putnam with an 8-2 victory, while Corey Deuel did the same to Alex Lely of The Netherlands. “I’m playing good and breaking good—breaking good is so important,” affirmed Diks. “I have to win one more to be absolutely sure. I think I play really positive and don’t get wound up because of the group matches. If you get wound up, you lose your discipline and that’s something I haven’t done all this tournament. Of course everybody is going to miss balls, you make weird mistakes sometimes, but I go back to a positive attitude right away and that helps.”Efren Reyes showed up late for his third-round match against Gabe Owen, costing him a game right off the top. He then won the lag and scratched, giving Owen ball in hand. The entire match progressed in that fashion: a dry break leading to the other player’s run-out. Owen eventually won the match 8-6—Reyes has only one win so far.David Matlock dealt yet another loss to Rafael Martinez 8-5, making the Mexican 0 for 3 so far. Matlock stated, “I’m playing fair. One match I play really good and then next I make a few mistakes. The breaks are a big problem, really, and I’m getting out of line, I’m taking easy outs and making them tough. That’s from the pressure—there is a lot of pressure.”Santos Sambajon Jr., Francisco Bustamante, and Alex Pagulayan all won their matches as well, with Rodolfo Luat losing to Pagulayan. Both Luat and Pagulayan hold a 2-1 record going into the fourth round of the day. And Brit Darren Appleton bested Marlon Manalo 8-4 for his first win today.Round 4 Group 74Group 75C. DeuelM. ManaloD. PeachA. LelyS. TotD. AppletonGroup 76D. OrcolloA. PagulayanM. ImmonenN. FeijenY. BeaufilsR. LuatGroup 77A. LiningR. MartinezS. PutnamL. NevelR. DiksD. MatlockGroup 78R. SouquetR. MorrisJ. KirkwoodM. ChamatR. HundalE. StalevVisit Inside POOL Magazine for the latest pool and billiard news from the North American Open 8-Ball Championship.

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