by Skip Maloney, InsidePOOL Staff

Van Boening will be looking to do what others have rarely accomplished-- successfully defend the U.S. Open title.

The gathering has begun in Chesapeake, VA. With top-ranked players coming from the four corners of the globe, tournament officials are expecting between 240-275 entrants in the 33rd U.S. Open 9-Ball Championships at the Chesapeake Conference Center this weekend. While some consideration is being given to sealing the entrant total at 256 (there are currently over 200 confirmed registrants), Barry Behrman, tournament founder, has committed to keeping the brackets open beyond that figure, if necessary.

Among those scheduled to appear are Johnny Archer and Charlie Bryant, who’ll follow their epic finals battle at last week’s Carolina Open with a shot at this $100,000-added U.S. Open event, which will put $40,000 dollars in the pocket of the winner. Also on hand will be Francisco Bustamante, Tony Chohan, Corey Deuel, Ronnie Wiseman, and Gabe Owen, among others.

Among the European players expected to be on hand are defending champion Shane Van Boening, Niels Feijen, and Ralf Souquet, who won in 2002. Japan will be represented by Kento Yonezu and Kenichi Uchigaki. There will, as well, be six entrants from Kuwait—the country’s national team—which will include 12-year-old Saad Al-Adasami, who, along with America’s 12-year-old Brenden Crockett, will be the youngest players in the event. To date, the youngest player to ever win the U.S. Open was Mike Sigel, who was 21 when he won it in 1976. The oldest, at 54, was Mike LeBron in 1988.

View the 2008 U.S. Open 9-Ball Championship tournament brackets

Action is set to begin at 11 a.m. Sunday morning and will entail races to 11, with winners breaking. In the finals, scheduled for Saturday, October 25, if the one-loss side opponent reaches 11 first, the match will automatically extend to 13 games.