Lots of good stories out there on this Saturday at the Phoenix Open.

Yapp, whose WNT play has been pretty forgettable so far in 2026, appeared to find his "A" game against Januarta. If he shows similar form today, everybody could be in trouble.

Labutis, who won the 2025 Hanoi Open and performed admirably at the 2025 Mosconi Cup, has struggled a bit of late, appears to have found his form.

Pecelj, who wowed us in the Arizona with two "back from the dead" victories over Januarta and SVB, seems to have sustained his solid level of play.

Filler has a chance to become the first to win two WNT events this year.

YL Chang, hardly under the radar in Asia but not terribly well-known in America, is hard to overlook after a 10-1 drubbing of Arizona Open champion Grabe in the round of sixteen. He looks very dangerous.

Oliver Szolnocki, whose very straight shooting has given him some measure of success at Heyball, has always looked like someone ready to take the next step forward. He has been third in the World 9ball and he won the 2025 World Games. The pedigree seems to be there, so let's see if he can make some noise today.

Tyler Styer has been consistently solid of late. Though an unremarkable 17th at the UK Open, he demolished Neuhausen along the way, and it seems that it got his game jumpstarted. He has since been 9th at Vice City, 5th at the Florida Open, 17th at the Arizona Open and will have a Top 5 today. I reckon that he's a long shot today, but he has been sustaining a high level of play, so you never know. That said, to my recollection, no sub-800 Fargo player has beaten a field of this quality since Mickey Krause won the 2024 European Open.

Carlo Biado is an anomaly. His play in WNT ranking events since his WPC title a year ago has offered very little to get excited about, but we know what he can produce when he's going full-steam ahead, and maybe today is the day he finds his "A" game.

Saturday at the Phoenix Open should be a hoot! Good luck to the eight fine players that will vie for the title.

The Customer Service you described is bad for sure
But can’t you still use the break rack even with that little piece chipped off?

Bump

Bump

Tyler Styer's impressive summer continues. He was 9th at Vice City, 5th at the Florida Open, 17th at the Arizona Open, and will have a Top 5 finish today. That's the kind of consistency we have so rarely seen from an American player in recent years, and it is something to get excited about. Wish him well today.

Definitely worth something to the right collector.

Clearly, from the logo, it's a second generation Gina, sometime after 1988 -- the first generation had Ginacue spelled out one way or the other. It also does appear to have been used a fair amount though the wrap looks to be in pretty good condition. There are folks here than will know more.

Lou Figueroa

jay helfert said:

I watched a different match. IMO poor playing overall by both players at the end. Watch game 7-7 again. One mistake after another!

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Agreed, Jay. After 14 racks, the match fizzled.

A match that had been electrifying for 14 racks, and the commentators had said as much, got ugly in the latter stages, but in truth, Neuhausen's play was almost superhuman up to that point (TPA over .950 for sure) and it took a Filler to fade a performance like that one.

We've all been marveling at Neuhausen's development over the past 1 1/2 seasons, and I feel strongly that he offered even more reason to get excited about what he might achieve down the road. Especially in the areas of kicking and jumping, what we saw for fourteen racks was breathtaking. I always enjoy seeing the elite pushed to their limit and, given the game Filler was required to summon to find the finish line, I wasn't surprised in the least when he demolished Jeff Roda in the next match, taking a 7-0 lead on the way to a 10-4 win.

We often talk on the forum about how WNT rules disproportionately favor those who have the needed skills to beat opponents to the shot. It seems that Neuhausen, who has already won a WNT major this year at the European Open, has joined the ranks of the elite in the moves game (chiefly defense, kicking, jumping, and the use of two-way shots) and the possibilities, to me, are exciting because of it. If AJ Manas, whose runout skills are already top twenty in the world and who has finally begun to develop significantly in these complementary skills, can develop similarly, most of us feel he can join the ranks of the super-elite. Wish him well.

As you suggest, as the level of play found in this match wasn't sustained after rack 14, it cannot be counted as a classic, but it was for most of the way. For me personally, matches like this one are the reason I get excited about pool. It's not often that the loser of a match is the story, but this was one of those rare cases where what I saw from Neuhausen was the most memorable takeaway from the match.

These two German friends, who were each Mosconi Cup MVP within the last three years, are likely to give Team USA fits at the 2026 Mosconi a few months from now. We shall see.

Very classy......My kind of cue.

Is the machine worth it?

How is the support?

Is the 4th axis quality?

Sincerely,

Skip

Sent from my SM-S936U using Tapatalk

Bob Jewett said:

There is a thread about it. A special kind of wrap. 1920s

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I thought maybe a fourth partner, but I had doubts.