The Final Day of the US Open 9-ball Championships: Only 4 Players Remain

Only four players now remain in the US Open 9-ball Championships here in Chesapeake, VA, in a field that started out with 216 from 26 countries.  Two players, Donnie Mills of Clearwater, FL and former US Open Champion and former World Champion, Ralf Souquet of Germany.

Souquet and underdog Mills will be playing for the “hot seat” position, guaranteeing the undefeated spot in the finals.  Ralf Souquet and Donnie Mills ran through seven race to 11 matches over the course of 6 days to make it this far, and are in the heat of battle in their match which began at 1:00 pm EST.  Watch it live on Accu-Stats.com.

Donnie Mills, who finished in the top 16 at the 2008 US Open, had highlight wins over Frankie Hernandez (11-10), Darren Appleton (11-5), Tommy Kennedy (11-9) and a final late-night win over Rodney Morris (11-10).

A very familiar face in the finals of major events, Ralf Souquet has stayed on-point in his game at the Open, taking down Huidjee See of the Netherlands and Lee Van Corteza along the way.

Read on to see who which players have made it through the one loss bracket to make it to the final day.  Click Here to view our photo galleries from Day 6 at the US Open 9-ball Championships.

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On Thursday evening, the final 16 players undefeated players faced off to determine their fate for the rest of the event… either a long fight through the one-loss side, or move forward in hopes of remaining undefeated.

At 10pm, Ralf Souquet matched up against Atlanta’s Stevie Moore, in a set that Moore never really got started in, with Souquet finishing off with a score of 11-4.  Two young guns of the game, Chris Bartram and Jeremy Sossei, also played in the 10pm round, where we saw Bartram play dominantly and lead throughout the match, to win 11-5.

In an upset, Karl Boyes, a breakthrough young player from England, defeated Jose Parica, 11-4.  Although Jose had previously played dominantly, Boyes never gave him a chance to get started, and we rarely saw Parica at the table.  In an all-British match, Final 16 match, Imran Majid, currently ranked #1 in England, knocked countryman Scott Higgins to the one-loss side.

Filipino rising star, Lee Van Corteza ended Earl Strickland’s winning streak on Thursday evening in the Predator Arena.  Corteza has been playing near-perfect pool, in a cool and calm fashion, and defeated the steaming Strickland 11-5.  Donnie Mills also continued to dominate over Demitrius Jelatis, by the same score of 11-5.

Snooker champion Chris Melling stayed game-for-game with former US Open Champion Rodney Morris, but Rodney pulled away to win 11-9. Meanwhile,veteran Kim Davenport  stayed ahead of 22-year-old Mike Dechaine the entire match to win 11-8, taking advantage of Dechaine’s errors and showing impressive shotmaking.

The Winner’s Side Final Eight:

Chris Bartram, who is not known for his tournament play, but as being a heavy hitting money player, gave former world champion Ralf Souquet a run for his money in the final eight.  They battled back and forth but Souquet close out the match at 11-8.  Imran Majid also tested Lee Van Corteza, who would finally win 11-7.

The other two matches were blowouts. Donnie Mills defeated Karl Boyes (11-3), who had an impressive run through the winner’s bracket, taking out American favorites like Johnny Archer & Charlie Bryant.  Kim Davenport never stood a chance against Rodney Morris, who ran through “California Kim” 11-2.

The Winner’s Side Final Four:

In the first winner’s bracket Final Four match, Ralf Souquet proved to be “The Kaiser” in his match over Lee Van Corteza.  Corteza had some unfortunate scratches on the break, and definitely did not not look comfortable in this match, while it was “business as usual” for Ralf Souquet, who finished out the set, 11-7.

Undefeated Donnie Mills and Rodney Morris faced off in the final four on Friday evening.  Rodney looked to dominate this match, jumping out to a major 8-2 lead, but Donnie had other things in mind.  The momentum shifted and Donnie took control of the match, rallying to

One-Loss Side Highlights:

Mika Immonen had a surprisingly early loss to Chris Bartram in the second round (11-9), however, Mika made a quick recovery and was soon cruising through the one-loss side.  Mika defeated Tom McGonagle 11-3, Stephen Folan 11-9, Thorsten Hohmann 11-7, and top Kuwaiti payer Abdulla Al-Yusef 11-8.  This put him head-to-head with young gun from Minneapolis, MN, Beau Runningen.  Beau had an impressive run through the winner’s bracket at this event, until he fell to Stevie Moore close match that went hill-hill.  Impressively, Beau also tested the Iceman, but in the hill-hill game he scratched while attempting a safe, allowing Mika to move on.

Mika then had another close call against Great Britain’s Scott Higgins, 11-10, then defeated Charlie Williams 11-7, Chris Bartram 11-6, then Steve Moore 11-5.  Although Mika took the long route, he is now playing in the final day of this event, currently playing Lee Van Corteza to move onto the semifinals.  This winner of that match will take on the loser between Ralf Souquet and Donnie Mills.
After his loss to Ralf Souquet, Stevie Moore showed some true heart to come back and win some tremendous matches.  Local pool player Keith Bennett was waiting for Moore with guns blazing and shot ahead to an 8-3 lead over Moore.  However, Stevie Moore played patiently and methodically and came back game by game to tie hill-hill and win the match.

Through sheer grit and intense safety play, Stevie also came from behind to defeat Yuki Akagariyama hill-hill, after Yuki rattled the 7 ball in the final rack.  Yuki had previously had a close call against Jeremy Sossei, who came back hill-hill after trailing 8-2.  Following his win over Yuki, Stevie cleaned out 11-3 against Imran Majid, but could not hold back against the firepower of Mika Immonen last night, losing 11-5.

Newly-inducted BCA Hall of Famer Johnny Archer fell from the winner’s bracket after a Wednesday night hill-hill loss to Karl Boyes, but made his way back to face his good friend Kim Davenport. Johnny and Kim are the co-owners of the Marietta Billiard Club in Marietta, Georgia, and the Predator Arena was packed to see these two champions face off.  And they did indeed put on a fantastic match, with the two keeping the match tied closely throughout.

Johnny edged ahead and reached the hill first, and after a miss by Kim, it looked guaranteed that Johnny would win the match.  However, Johnny rattled the seven ball and it sat in the pocket for Kim to clean up and take the game, setting the match hill-hill.  In the tiebreaking game, Kim broke, and to the crowd’s shock, the 9-ball went into the side pocket, for Kim Davenport to take the match.

This set Kim in line to play the UK’s Karl Boyes, and Kim Davenport was in high gear, moving around the table with a distinct swagger.  Riding on his clear confidence and superb shotmaking, he ran to a 11-4 win over Boyes.

Kim next played faced Lee Van Corteza, who had fallen to Ralf Souquet on the winner’s bracket.  This match would begin at nearly 1:00 am this morning, and although Corteza was firing on all cylinders, Davenport did begin to waver, and Lee Van Corteza jumped to an early 8-3 lead.  Corteza played near-perfect pool, and was also accustomed to the playing conditions on the Predator Arena TV table, which catapulted him to a 11-5 win over Kim Davenport.  Congratulations to Kim for a tremendous event.

To come from the loser’s  bracket to win a major event is an impressive feat, and that is just what reigning US Open Champion, Mika Immonen of Finland and Lee Van Corteza of the Republic of the Philippines have on their plate today.

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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