The First Evening of the UPA Finals Wraps Up

The First Evening of the UPA Finals Wraps Up By Hilary Morse, InsidePOOL MagazineThe first evening session of the UPA’s final event for the 2003 season took off with a full crowd watching, anticipating the matches to come. A few heart-breaking losses, a couple of brutal beatings, and some great pool took place.Los Angeles locals Bernardo “King Kong” Chavez and Johnny Kang had the bad luck to draw each other in the first round. Chavez was uncharacteristically missing some key shots and was down to Kang, who had a strong lead of 8-1 before Chavez began getting in stroke. Chavez won the next four games to bring the score 8-5 before Kang defeated him 11-6.
Two more Los Angeles locals, Oscar Dominguez, son of Ernesto, drew fierce competitor Jerry Brumstetter. Dominguez had recently finished in third place at the $1,000-added first Sunday of the month Hard Times, Bellflower, tournament, which had helped pay his entry to get into the UPA event. Oscar, much like his father, is tough opposition and was showing a fine display of heart by being down 9-4 and making a 9-8 comeback before getting beat by Brumstetter 11-8.The methodical Arturo Rivera and the instinctive “Machine Gun” Luc Salvas had an interesting match-up with their very different styles. Rivera’s slow pace seemed to throw off Salvas’ one-stroke style. With Rivera on the hill 10-4, Salvas shot at the 5 ball like he no longer cared, and Rivera crossed the finish line at 11-4.Tony “The Sniper” Crosby and Alex “The Lion” Pagulayan had an exciting match. Crosby was up on Pagulayon 7-6 and missed a crucial 7 ball; instead of giving him a two-game lead, now the score was knotted at 7. Pagulayan got up 9-7 before he missed the 7 ball, and Crosby brought the score to 9-8. However, he never won another game, as Pagulayan ended up finishing the match strong with an 11-8 win.A match that everyone was anticipating was between “The Silent Assassin” Tony Robles and “The Bulldog” Rafael Martinez. Robles played strong, and Martinez, who played a little more defensively than usual, had a few bad rolls. At one point during the match, Martinez ran out the rack, played a breakout shot on the 8 and 9 balls, and left himself hooked behind the 9. In the end, Robles played strong throughout the match and ended up with an 11-3 victory over Martinez.Other matches that took place was a 9-0 wipeout by Buddy “The Rifleman” Hall over room owner Danny Kuykendall, a 9-2 win by Danny Harriman over Edgar Jackson, and a 9-4 victory for Ralf Souquet over Neil Fujiwara.Tomorrow’s matches on the winners’ side will have an exciting line-up, including matches between Jeremy Jones and Efren Reyes, Buddy Hall and Mika Immonen, and Ralf Souquet and Scott “The Freezer” Frost. Visit InsidePOOL for the latest in the sport of billiards and pool.

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