Earl Does It Again! The 16 Undefeated Players are Now Competing to Move on to the Final 8

At the start of Day 5 here at the US Open 9-ball Championships, only 16 players remained in the winner’s bracket, and to get there, these top players had to grind through four days of play to make it to the final four in each of the four brackets.

The 10 pm matches have recently started, and you can click here to watch the live stream from the Predator Arena provided by Accu-Stats, and click here to view the live scoring on all matches, provided by AZbilliards… plus updated brackets are available here.  Right now the feature match is Stevie Moore vs Ralf Souquet.

One of the forerunners in this event is 5-time US Open winner and veteran of the game, Earl “The Pearl” Strickland.  Last night, Earl came back from behind in his match against Mexico’s Rafael Martinez, to break and run hill-hill.  Earl will next face rising star of the Philippines, Lee Van Corteza, who had an impressive finish in last year’s US Open.

Another legendary player, Kim Davenport, had a win tremendous win over Roberto Gomez.  Davenport was down 10-8 when he forged a comeback to go hill-hill.  In the tiebreaker, Gomez played a safe on the 2-ball, and Davenport played a long  2-rail kick to combo the 2-4 and run the table to win the match.

Click Here to view the photo gallery from Day 4, photos by Alison M. Fischer, and read on for the breakdown on the action.

Kim Davenport will spar with American young gun Mike Dechaine scheduled for 10pm tonight.  Mike has gone undefeated thus far with a close 11-8 win against Jeremy Jones on Wednesday night. Mike recently won his first major at the UPA’s World Summit of Pool, beating Thorsten Hohmann in the finals, and is showing he can hang with the best.

The contingent of British players in the event have also been impressive so far, including snooker champion Chris Melling.  Melling led his Wednesday night match against Japan’s Tomoo Takano to edge ahead 11-10 for the win.  Melling has just started his match against “The Rocket” Rodney Morris, who also clinched a well-earned victory over former Mosconi Cup teammate, Corey Deuel, 11-9.

Also representing Great Britain, Imran Majid and Scott Higgins are both undefeated, and are now facing off this evening.  Majid is currently the #1-ranked player in England, while Scott ranked #8, so this will definitely be an exciting match.

Making 4 of the 16 undefeated players is Karl Boyes, who has had an outstanding event thus far, who defeated 2009 BCA Hall of Fame Inductee Johnny Archer in hill-hill match surrounded by a crowd of people, then crushed Charlie “Hillbilly” Bryant 11-5 last night.

However, one of the British favorites in this event, reigning World 10-ball Champion Darren Appleton was upset last night by Florida’s Donnie Mills, in a major 11-5 win.  Donnie also beat Darren at last year’s Open, and it will be interesting to see how he fares

Another big winner’s side matchup from last night was between Jason Klatt and Chris Bartram. Klatt was down 9-5 to Bartram, he won six consecutive games to take the hill, 10-9 and almost closed the set but got out of shape on the 5 and left the runout for Bartram.  At hill-hill, Bartram made a gutsy 4-9 carom to win.

Check out the breakdown of Wednesday night’s matches, written by Geoff Conway.

US OPEN MATCH RESULTS FOR WEDNESDAY 21ST OCTOBER 2009

3:00 PM:

Predator Arena TV Match: NIELS FEIJEN (NED)  vs.  RAJ HUNDAL (INDIA)

An exciting loser’s side match was expected between Niels Feijen (NED) and Raj Hundal (INDIA) on the Accu-Stats TV table. Niels who is known for being a grinder,  will fight to the finish to get the “W”. Raj Hundal is also known for his no nonsense approach to the game, and is hard man to beat.

However, Niels immediately stamped his authority on this match, and quickly got out to a 3-1 lead.  This lead would haunt Raj to the very end of the match, as he really never recovered from this deficit, even though he got the score back to 3-3 at one point, Niels soon shot out into an impressive lead of 9-3.

Raj tried to make a late rally when he ran a couple of racks and another two games after some safety bouts, getting the score to 9-7. Niels decided enough was enough and took the following rack, then finished off with a bang making the 9 on the break in the last game, to shut out Raj from this year’s US Open.

9:00 PM

DARREN APPLETON (UK)  vs.  DONNIE MILLS (USA)

This match would turn out to be one of the biggest upsets of the week, with Donnie Mills from Florida duly dumping Darren Appleton into the loser’s side of the bracket… Donnie, who is famous for his disregard for the reputation of the top pros, has claimed many a scalp in the Seminole events.

Donny had Darren 3-0 straight away, before Darren managed to put one game on the wire. Donny then forged ahead to 6-1, before allowing Darren to score another game to get it to 6-2. Donny then got it to 7-2, before Darren got another game to pull it back to 7-3.

Donnie then applied the accelerator and increased his lead to 10-3. Darren dug deep and put another two games on the wire to get it to 10-5, before Donny closed out the match at 11-5.  Donnie does not get much national exposure, and it is good to see him playing so well in this year at the US Open.

This is a big win for Mr. Mills, and we wish him well in his bid to be this year’s US Open Champion.  But, do not count out Darren, who can still scrabble back from this lose.

Predator Arena TV Match: COREY DEUEL (USA)  vs.  RODNEY “The Rocket” MORRIS (USA)

Corey looked sharp in the first two games and quickly jumped out to a two game lead. Rodney just as quickly got it back to two all. Rodney then took the next three games, helped a little by Corey missing an easy nine ball in the bottom pocket in the sixth game.

The score then went back and forth until they were tied at 7-7. Rodney then took the next three games to get it to 10-7, including a 9 on the break in the 16th game. Corey did not give up and took the next two games to put the score to 10-9.

11pm

CHRIS MELLING (UK)  vs.  TOMOO TAKANO (JPN)

This match always seemed to be there for the taking for Mr. Melling, who always was ahead in this match. Mr Melling who was an accomplished snooker in the UK, until he switched to the US style of 9 ball. Chris has run 22 maximum 147’s in his career in snooker.

Subsequently, because of his background in snooker, Chris is one of the best potters of the pool ball as I have seen, and we are seeing him improve his safety game, and learn when and when not to go for the lesser percentage shots.

Mr. Melling, who plays Rodney Morris in his next match, ran out the winner in this match with a score line of 11-10.

DEMITRIUS JELATIS  (USA)  vs. MARLON MANALO (PHI)

Mr. Jelatis, from Minneapolis, MN, surprised everybody by getting ahead on Marlon 5-1, before the Filipino champion got it back to 5-3. However, Mr. Jelatis did not get the memo that Marlon is one of the top players in the world, and soon put the score to 8-3. Marlon could be seen squirming in his chair, and had no answer for Mr. Jelatis stellar play.

Marlon managed to get back a couple of games before Demitrius closed out the match, 11-5. After seeing Manalo not let his previous opponents, including Ernesto Dominguez, past five games in this event, this was a very impressive win for Demitrius, and many will look to see how he fares through the rest of the event.  Meanwhile, Mr. Manalo will have to fight his way back from the loser’s bracket, and we will watch his progress in future reports.

MAJID ALIZIMO (KUWAIT) vs.  CLIFF JOYNER (USA)

Cliff Joyner had trouble getting into gear in this match, and was soon on the wrong side of a 5-1 score line. Cliff managed to get one game to put it at 5-2 before Mr Alizimo forged ahead to close out the match at 11-5. Cliff whos real game is one pocket, just did not look comfortable at the table during this match.

Good luck to Mr. Alizimo in his quest for this prestigious trophy. The five-man Kuwaiti team have represented themselves well in this tournament, as another member of the team put up a strong battle against Ralf Souquet in the winner’s bracket on Wednesday night. Unfortunately he did not come out the winner, even though he was ahead early in the match 6-4, Ralf fought back to take the win 11-9.

Predator Arena TV Match: EARL “The Pearl” STRICKLAND (USA)  vs.  RAFAEL MARTINEZ (MEX)

Earl “The Pearl” faced off against Mexico’s Rafael Martinez last night, in what was Earl’s third consecutive match on the TV table, which could definitely give him an edge in future matches in the arena. Earl is always a fan favorite at the US Open, and he definitely draws a huge crowd into the arena whenever he plays.

This match was very close throughout, with Earl going up a couple of games early, only to have Rafael close it up at 7-7. Rafael who is known for his “go for everything” style of play, crashed and burned a couple of times, when trying to draw back from the side rail, and subsequently rattled the ball in the pocket.

Earl showed vivid frustration in this match after scratching a couple of times, slamming his stick down on the guilty pocket, grabbing the attention of everyone in the arena He looked as if he threw in the towel a couple of times, but kept on grinding… to the joy of the crowd, he came out the winner with a break and run at hill-hill, winning 11-10.

On reflection, Mr. Martinez may have had a better chance at winning this match if he had not played one-too-many flamboyant shots.  Let’s see how Martinez will fare on the one-loss side.

“Earl the Pearl” has a very big fan base, even though he exhibits many questionable antics on and off the table. Earl recently joined the CSI Team Grand Masters, along with John Schmidt, Corey Deuel and Charlie Bryant, in an effort to gain more exposure for the sport through pool clinics, exhibitions, and creating more overall camaraderie.

JERMEMY SOSSEI (USA)  vs.  RAMIL GALLEGO (PHI)

Connecticut’s Jeremy Sossei, definitely looked like the underdog in his match against Ramil Gallego on Wednesday evening.  Although his name may not be known on the international level, Jeremy has been knocking on the door of winning a major since finishing runner-up at Turning Stone in 2008, when he lost to Johnny Archer. He also won the Joss Ocean State Championship in Rhode Island last year, beating such notables as Dennis Hatch, Tony Robles, and George “Ginky” Sansouci in the process.

As most would predict, Ramil had Jeremy at a pretty good deficit of 5-2. However, Jeremy, who not only is a class act, but is also a grinder, soon got the score back to 6-6, and stayed ahead by at least one game until the end, when he finished out the set with a score of 11-10.

Gallego was visibly rattled by Jeremy’s superb play, and succumbed to the pressure, missing a couple of shots he would normally have nailed.

Good luck to Jeremy who is still cruising in the winner’s lane… maybe it’s his year to put on the Green Jacket.

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Make sure to stay on the NYC Grind for more updates here at the The 34th Annual US Open 9-ball Championships, which is sponsored by Diamond Billiards, The Delta-13 Rack, Iwan Simonis Cloth, Aramith Balls, and Accu-Stats Video Production, along with Q-Master Billiards. You can watch the US Open live on the web by visiting www.accu-stats.com. Check out www.usopen9ballchampionship.com to learn more about this event.

NYC Grind’s 360º coverage of the 2009 US Open is sponsored by Simonis Cloth and CSI - Cue Sports International.

CueSports International (CSI) is the parent company of the BCA Pool Leagues, The NCS (National Championship Series and produces the U.S. Bar Table Championships and the Jay Swanson Memorial. CSI’s goal is to create and improve opportunities for all pool players. For more information about the BCA Pool League or CueSports International call 702-719-7665 or visit www.playbca.com