EUROPEAN ROMP!

Team Europe Beats USA, Wins Mosconi Cup

Team Europe

BY LUKE RICHES

World Pool & Billiard Association

LAS VEGAS -- EUROPE has successfully defended the PartyPoker.net Mosconi Cup following a convincing 11-7 victory over the USA at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Holland’s Niels Feijen, in his seventh Mosconi Cup, downed the winning 9 ball.

With two singles and two doubles wins, Feijen won the Mos Valuable Player Award. "I just want to thank the crowd, the British and Europeans and you need them to make it," he said after his 6-3 victory over Rodney Morris to seal the Mosconi Cup. 

The Americans, who had trailed 10-5 at the start of the day, won the opening two games to leave the Europeans looking a little edgy.

Niels Feijen

"Even this morning, there was pressure on us and we knew they would come out strongly. There was some heat to get over the finish line but these guys are just so good,” continued Feijen.

Johnny Archer, playing in his 15^th Mosconi Cup, was stoical in defeat. "We lost a couple of matches we should've won and they blitzed us in a few matches," he said. "We all gave it our best and will do it again next time. Hats off to their team, they hung in there when things didn't look good."

The opening match of the day saw Shane Van Boening keeping US hopes alive as he comfortably beat Nick Van den Berg 6-2. Veteran Johnny Archer also beat Darren Appleton Sunday, and in the process effectively quashed the hopes of a repeat MVP trophy for the stellar English player.

So in the end it was Niels Feijen who was left to finish off Team USA.  He beat Hawaiian Rodney Morris 6-3 to give the Europeans the decisive 11th point. "Being the Most Valuable Player is something I've been dreaming about this for seven years, every year I've played in it," said Feijen.

Sunday's Match Scores:

Nick Van den Berg 2-6 Shane Van Boening

Darren Appleton 3-6 Johnny Archer

Niels Feijen 6-3 Rodney Morris

The World Pool and Billiard Association(WPA) is the international governing body of the sport of pool.  Please visit the WPA site at www.wpa-pool.com. Follow the WPA on Twitter: @poolwpa

Appleton wins 2010 U.S. Open

Dreams of 3-peat dashed for Immonen

Video from InsidePoolMag.com.

England's Darren "Dynamite" Appleton became the newest U.S. Open 9-Ball champion Saturday after sending pool titan Mika Immonen to the one-loss side and then prevailing during a see-saw tactical battle with American Corey Deuel in the finals.

The 32-year-old native of Pontefract, West Yorkshire, England was the only competitor to go undefeated during the week-long tournament, arguably the most prestigious in pool. The U.S. Open this year drew the biggest names in the sport from more than 30 countries. For the first time ever, women also competed along with the men.

Much of the suspense during the late stages centered on Immonen, ranked by many as the world's best. The Finish player had won the previous two Opens in 2009 and 2008 and appeared poised for a three-peat this year. On the final day of competition Immonen and Appleton were the only two undefeated players in the event. Immonen also was favored to win his hot-seat match against the Englishman.

But it was not to be. Immonen trailed by a small margin for much of the contest, but had a chance to tie it up at 10-10 in the 20th rack.  But then Immonen jawed a steep cut shot along the short rail, leaving a quick three-ball run out for Appleton.  Final score: Appleton 11, Immonen 9.

Immonen then joined the two other remaining players on the loser's side,  the Philippines' Warren Kiamco and 2001 U.S. Open champ Deuel. First Kiamco and Deuel would play, and then the winner of that game would meet Immonen for a chance to meet Appleton in the finals. Deuel beat Kiamco in the first match, but only barely. In fact, if not for a new rule this year requiring competitors in the semi-finals and finals to win by a two-game margin, Kiamco would have won. The Filipino was leading Deuel 11-10, but ended up falling to the Ohio player 14-12.

Deuel then met Immonen in the one-loss finals. The inventor of the soft-break had blanked Immonen during the U.S. Open finals nine years ago, and looked to runover the Iceman again this year. Immonen kept it close during the early going, but then Deuel began to pile on games. Deuel punished the Iceman for every mistake and then broke and ran the final three. The final score Saturday: 11-3

With his dreams dashed of becoming the only man to win three consecutive U.S. Opens, a clearly dejected Immonen pledged now to seek another record:  Earl Strickland's five U.S. Open victories.  Deuel, for his part, said he felt fortunate to have come so far. "I just think I played my best match at the right time," he told Nick Leider of Billiards Digest, moments after the victory Saturday. 

With the Iceman's third-place finish, what would be remembered as an epic U.S. Open showdown was set up between Deuel and Appleton. The Englishman pulled out to a quick lead, but then Deuel fought his way back from an 11-9 deficit to get to the hill, 12-11.  If Deuel would have taken the next game, the U.S. Open would have been his. But a dry break allowed Appleton to tie it up at 12-12.

Appleton then broke and ran the next game, bringing the score to 13-12. Deuel fought back, tying the match yet again. But the American handed the next game to Appleton after a scratch. Appleton then broke and ran the next game, winning the championship 15-13.

The final run out was a relatively simple affair,  if such a thing is possible during the final game of America's most prestigious pool tournament. I've posted a video (above) of the run-out, from InsidePooMag.com.  "At that point, the only way I was going to miss was if my hand fell off," said Appleton, quoted in Billiards Digest.

Appleton is the first English player to win the U.S. Open. Besides winning the World 10-Ball Championship in 2008, Appleton also won the World Pool Masters title in 2009.  Asked how this title compared to the others, and Appleton responded: "I think I'll enjoy this one more."

Video highlights
Check out the coverage of the Friday's action, in the video report from Samm Diep and AZbilliards, just below. You can also review the video highlights of the previous day's actions in my earlier blog posts.

-- R.A. Dyer



Video from AZbilliards.com

U.S. Open Grand Finale Today

Three-peat for the Iceman?

      Video from azbilliards.com
Three-peat for Mika Immonen? That's the question for pool fans as the U.S. Open draws to its grand finale today in Chesapeake, Virginia. The Iceman from Finland, winner of both the 2008 and 2009 events, remains one of only two undefeated players. The other is former World 10-Ball champ Darren Appleton of England, who Immonen will play today in the hot seat match. The two remaining players on the one-loss side are Corey Deuel of the USA and Warren Kiamco of the Philippines.

"Of course, I'm thinking about it," Immonen told Nick Leider of Billiards Digest when asked about the possibility of winning the U.S. Open an unprecented three years in a row.

Immonen on BD Cover

The U.S. Open is one of the most prestigious pool tournaments in the world and the closet thing in the United States to a national pool championship. Promoter Barry Behrman began the 2010 extravaganza with a full field of 256 giant killers. The best players from the Philippines, Canada, Germany, the Czech Republic, Peru, Taiwan, Austria and many other countries all made the pilgrimage. Women also competed for the first time this year.

Immonen last year became only the second person in its 35-year-history to have won the tournament twice in a row. The first was Hall of Fame player Nick Varner, who accomplished the startling feat two decades earlier. If Immonen cements his third consecutive victory today, his record likely will stand for decades.

And at this late stage, Immonen certainly is considered the favorite. He's the most highly ranked player of the four left standing, and over the last two years has won just about every tournament there is to win. During his last game Friday he unceremoniously stomped Jason Klatt of Toronto by a score of 11-4. At one point, Immonen broke and ran six racks. Nonetheless, Corey Deuel, Warren Kiamco and Darren Appleton are all extremely dangerous. For instance Deuel, the 2006 U.S. Open winner, also stomped Klatt (11-1) during the last loser's side match Friday and earlier in the day eliminated Shane Van Boening. Deuel is now the last American in the field.

The only person to have beaten Deuel so far is Darren Appleton, who plays Immonen today for a spot in the final. Appleton also scored victories Friday over Efren Reyes, 11-5, and David Alcaide, 11-8, to inch within one game of the championship.

Warren Kiamco is the wild card. The only loss so far for the extremely dangerous player from Cebu, Philippines was his 11-10 heart-breaker to Corey Deuel. The two meet again at 1 p.m. (EST) where Kiamco will have his chance at revenge.

Django on BD Cover

The final is at 7 p.m..  Many fans appeared to be rooting Friday for Immonen, if for nothing else because he might make history. Said Cathy Jo Sawyer Almanza: "it's tough to pick a winner, but since three in row has never been done in this event, I'm hoping that Mika does it."

Newest HOF Inductees at U.S. Open 
Francisco Bustamante became the newest player inducted into the Billiard Congress Hall of Fame.  He received the honor Thursday during a banquet at the event. Also,Terry Bell and Larry Hubbart, founders of the American Poolplayers Association league system in 1979, were inducted in the Meritorious Service category.

Here's a quick bio of Bustamante, from the BCA website:

"Bustamante, nicknamed “Django” because of a resemblance to the lead character in a Western film of the same name, was born in the Philippine province of Tarlac. He began playing pocket billiards at 10-years-old, and began competing in the United States in the early 1990s. He hit his stride in the United States in 1997, winning two Camel Pro Billiard Tour events. He was named Billiards Digest’s and Pool & Billiard Magazine’s Player of the Year in 1998 after notching four major tournament wins, and he earned Billiards Digest’s and Inside Pool’s Player of the Year titles again in 2002, winning five major events in the U.S. and abroad, and finishing second at the World Pool Championship.

Bustamante finally garnered his first recognized world title in 2010, winning the WPA World 9-Ball Championship in Doha, Qatar. His strongest game is 9-ball, where his blockbuster break is legendary; although he is more than proficient at all the major games, as witnessed by his All-Around title at the 2008 Derby City Classic."

You can read Ted Lerne's great profile of Django online this month, at billiardsdigest.com.

Follow the action
Also check out Samm Diep's great coverage of Bustamante's induction ceremony, and highlights from Thursday, in her azbilliards report, above. You can find the tournament brackets at AZbilliards.com and watch the action live through the Accu-Stats pay-per-view webcast.  Here's the link. I'll also be occasionally updating the Pool History Facebook page with news from Chesapeake. You can check out the page here.


-- R.A. Dyer