NEWS - 09.22.03 – U.S. Open 9-Ball – Jeremy Jones books a clear win

The 28th edition of the U.S. Open 9-Ball Championships was all but a lucky event. While in 2001 during the tournament the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre was committed, this year not only promoter B. Behrman was under fire. This year, hurricane „Isabel“ was the fierce enemy of the players, the fans and all other involved people. Due to the hurricane, the tournament had to be interrupted for almost 2 days – on one hand because the city council of the town Chesapeake had issued a corresponding decision, and on the other hand, because both the players hotel and the tournament venue were cut from electricity. The hurricane had cut off more than 1.5 million homes for several days.

The tournament started on time, and after a walk-through, I won in round 2 against the wheelchair player J. Dolezal (USA) 11-1. The next match against my Mosconi Cup team mate M. Chamat (SWE) was highly dramatic. Both players committed several mistakes during the match, but the decisive mistake happened to the Swede at the score of 10-10. He potted four balls with his break and had an open table. But his position on the fourth last ball was too straight and he missed the shot when trying to make use of the pocket width. With a bit of luck I managed to win the match 11-10. Then, the hurricane arrived and the tournament had to be interrupted for a day and a half. Some of the players anticipated their departure date because they considered the risk being too high. Still, things were not as bad as many had feared. Major parts of the US east coast were flooded and are still cut off from electricity and some people have become homeless. Here, we only had strong winds, strong rain and no electricity. On Friday afternoon, the tournament resumed.

I won my next match against youngster A. Kang (USA) 11-6. Due to the delays, the 5^th round in the winners bracket started only long after midnight and I finished my match against J. Korsiak (USA) from New York as late as 03h30 am – 11:9. In the round of the last 8 undefeated players, I was opposed to J. Parica (PHI) who later entered the final. This was my first appearance on the Centre Court. The conditions were good, but very different from the conditions we had before. The cloth had a different colour, the light was much brighter, the temperature was higher and to top all this, we played with a different cue ball. For the sake of the Pay-per-View broadcasting, the white cue ball was full of red dots so that the spectators could better see the rotation of the ball. So, the cue ball looked like if he had measles. I needed to adapt to all this and at the beginning, I didn’t feel too easy. Parica got used quicker to these conditions and took a 10-6 lead. Then, I could clear three tables in a row and was about to equal the score. But when I tried to play a hard 2 ball shot, in order to position the cue ball via the rail in the middle of the table, I missed the shot and left an open table to my opponent who booked a 11-9 win. Just after this match, I had to play J. Archer (USA) on one of the „normal“ tables. I somehow missed the beginning of the match and was rapidly trailing 0-4. But two mistakes of the “Scorpion” brought me back into the match and I could take a 9-6 lead. After a black break, Archer played up to the 6 ball and tried to play a safety shot, leaving me with a long, thin 6 ball to shot. I missed the shot and did not come back to the table anymore. This rack, and another four in a row made me lose 9-11, which meant a final rank 9. Of course, as the defending champion, I had bigger expectations, but in the light of my performances of the last weeks, this result was OK.

In the final, J. Jones (USA) was opposed to J. Parica (PHI). Jones, who reached the final as the only undefeated player and who had shown a very solid performance throughout this week, continued his strong performance, played a very good last match and fully deserved to win 11-4. So, he assured the U.S. Open 9-Ball title 2003 and the price money of US$ 30.000. Parica could plaster his wounds with a price money cheque of US$ 15.000 and third K. McCready, well known from the movie „The colour of money“, could celebrate his price money of US$ 10.000.