Reyes Deals Appleton Defeat
Reyes Deals Appleton Defeat
U.S. Open 9-Ball Championships / Virginia Beach, VA
Dismay flooded Darren Appleton’s many fans during his winners’ side match against Efren “Bata” Reyes. This was the second time the two have met in a week—last Friday they played a challenge match that Appleton took 15-12. But this time the score seesawed to hill-hill. In the final rack, Appleton missed the 1 ball, and Reyes ended up lucking in the money ball to win 11-10, sending Appleton to the one-loss side.
Dismay flooded Darren Appleton’s many fans during his winners’ side match against Efren “Bata” Reyes. This was the second time the two have met in a week—last Friday they played a challenge match that Appleton took 15-12.
Reyes will play another highly ranked Filipino in the next round, Dennis Orcollo. The recent winner of the China Open earlier defeated Mike Davis 11-5 and then Niels Feijen of Holland 11-8.
U.S. Open champ in 2005, Alex Pagulayan remains undefeated as well, eking out a double-hill victory over Daryl Peach of the U.K. and then world 8-ball champion Jun Lin Chang of Taipei 11-6. Pagulayan will next face off against Johnny “The Scorpion” Archer, who had blazed through his last two opponents, Brandon Shuff 11-2 and Albin Ouschan 11-3.
Shane Van Boening scored an 11-4 victory over Dutch player Nick Van Den Berg and then went on to face Chris Melling of the U.K. Melling took a 4-1 lead over the past U.S. Open champ but Van Boening turned the tables and sent Melling to the west side of the chart 11-4. In the next round Van Boening will match up against Ronnie Alcano, who defeated China’s He Wen Li 11-4.
Earl Strickland was toppled from the winners’ side in his match against Jose Parica, who sent him to the left side 11-5. Parica advances to play Jayson Shaw of the U.K., who bested 2001 winner Corey Deuel 11-8.
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On the west side, last year’s runner-up, Shawn Putnam shot to a huge lead over Virginian player Chris Futrell and reached the hill 10-1 before Futrell was able to put another rack on the wire. However, Putnam won the following to take the match 11-2.
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