Lopsided Scores Dominate North American 8-Ball Open Championship

Lopsided Scores Dominate North American 8-Ball Open ChampionshipBy Sally P. TimkoThere have been few upsets during the first couple of rounds of the IPT’s first major event, but many of the scores have been critically lopsided. The event, being held at The Venetian in Las Vegas, NV, began at 10 a.m. Sunday, July 23.Half of the field plays today, while the other half plays Monday. At the end of Monday’s rounds, 80 players will be going home with $2,000 each.Visit the IPT North American Open image galleryDay 1 image galleryMatch scheduleOne upset that occurred in the first round was Atlanta, GA’s Steve Moore, who had a stunning come-from-behind victory over Canadian pro player Paul Potier. Down 7-3 in the race to 8, Moore slowly struggled back into the match after missing a couple of crucual 8 balls to win the match 8-7.
“I was very nervous in the beginning,” Moore explained after taking a deep breath after his big win, “and missed a couple of eight balls. He took a pretty big lead on me. I just bore down and I got a couple of rolls after that, he missed a few balls. I felt good the last few games. I felt really good, actually. I came with it. It was pretty intense, for sure. I’m just glad that one’s over. Now I’ve got to focus on the next match!” U.K. snooker legend Ronnie O’Sullivan went up against Dennis Hatch, winner of the Super Billiards Expo pro event earlier this year. This match was televised live to Europe and Asia by Eurosport and ESPNStar, respectively. With the bad boys of pocket billiards going head to head, it was Hatch that came out winning 8-6.Keith McCready sharked himself with his shirt sleeve in his first-round match against Mike Zimmerman, suffering an 8-6 loss. When asked if he was planning on doing anything differently in his next round, McCready stated flatly, “Yeah. I’m going to the bar.”The scores coming in from the second round are noticeably unbalanced. The smallest gap has been four games—Luc Salvas bested Chris Bartram 8-4—while Neil Raybone whitewashed Rafael Gonzalez. In between, Russian world-beater Evgeny Stalev won 8-3 against Aaron Franken. U.S. representatives Dennis Hatch, Kim Davenport, John Schmidt, and Tony “Cha-Ching” Chohan scored 8-2 wins over Mike Lebron, Tyler Edey, Tom Storm, and Danny Diliberto, respectively. In the 8-1 category, there have been Charlie “The Korean Dragon” Williams over Alegandro Carrajal, Rodolfo Luat of the Philippines over Stephan Santl, Markus Juva over Ryan Keller, and Mick Hill over Quahbi Amine. Visit Inside POOL Magazine for the latest news in the sport of billiards and pool.

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