Day 1
US Open update:
As you can imagine, there were a ton of matches today. Most played out like you would expect, with most of the familiar names making it through to the third round without too much trouble. SVB, Yapp, Filler, Ko Pin Yi, Carlo, and FSR to name a few. There were some notable misses though, like Corey Deuel getting by Ko Ping Chung 9-6 as noted in the last post.
Chris Reinhold got past Mika Immonen 9-8, despite Mika’s strong second-place finish at the Turning Stone Classic XXXVII at the start of the month.
Lucas Fransico-Vernier a young American star on the rise, was sent to the B side by solid journeyman Francesco Candela
Shane Wolford failed in his bid to pass Toh Lian Han 8-9. You may not remember him, but he is Aloysius Yapp’s coach and teammate in the 2022 World Cup of Pool.
Moritz Neuhausen battled a long hard fight with the American Jesse Engel but came out on top 9-8. He didn’t look strong though. He has been playing very well of late, winning the CueLee’s Connecticut Open just two days ago, and finishing 2nd in the Raxx MVP tournament the week before. He’s young but high-pressure pool can take it’s toll and drain you. We’ll find out how much more fight he has in him this week. If he can pull off the win this week, he will vault into 4th place on Europe’s Mosconi rankings.
Tom Stavely defeated Marc Bijsterbosch 9-6, that was a bit of a surprise considering how well Marc has been playing the last few months.
Chang Yu-Lung, who was somehow unseeded (and taken by Raymond Linares in the Window’s Open / Pool Player Podcast – US OPEN DRAFT) was able to knock Anton Raga (another Raymond Linares pick, of all the luck!!) to the B side 9-8.
Kang Lee defeated Aleksa Pecelj, 9-8 and will face Oscar Dominguez next.
Canada’s own Danny Hewitt defeated Abdullah Alyousef 9-5, to book his spot in round three where I would have expected him to play Jose Alberto Delgado, but it will be Miguel Silva instead as he emerged with the 9-7 victory
David Alcaide had a scrappy first match but seems to have settled into his game as he also made it to the third round.
They are really a third of the way through Stage 1, the tight 4” pockets are giving some players a bit of trouble. Day 2 will be very interesting as the rest of the first round gets in on the action.
Veteran’s Ralf Souquet and Earl Strickland will be in action tomorrow, if they both win their first match, it will even be against each other. Other notables getting their 2023 US Open start tomorrow are Wu Kun Lin, Fedor Gorst, Albin Ouschan, Skyler Woodward, Alex Pagulayan, Billy Thorpe, Naoyuki Oi, Liu Ri Teng Duong Quoc Hoang, Jayson Shaw, Lee Van Corteza, Mario He, recent Michigan Open winner Wiktor Zielinski, John Morra, Niels Feijen, Chris Melling and Oliver Szolnoki just to name a bunch.
The action is only going to get better folks! Hang on and enjoy the ride.