BCA Open - Some of What I've seen

Sharing some of what I saw Monday form the women's draw ------

Paglia's win over Karen Corr was the big story of the day, and Angel was very sharp in this one.

Melissa Little had Allison Fisher in big trouble, ahead by 6 - 2, but Allison ralied to win the next few racks, to go up 7 - 6. When Little missed a seven ball where she appeared about to tie it 7 - 7, that was it, with Allison prevailing by 9 - 6. Vintage Allison down the stretch.

Wendy Jans played outstanding pool in trouncing Tiffany Nelson. Jans made an amost impossible runout at 5 - 2 and coasted after what I thought was the defining rack of the match.

All this aside, the lasting impression for me was watching Jasmin Ouschan's incredible effort in a 9 - 0 dismantling of Alice Rim. Ouschan's game has developed since last year, and I see her playing with far more attention to detail than ever before. It's difficult to know whether Jasmin can sustain this level of play, but if she can, she's among those with a chance to win this title.

On the men's side:

Hopkins had a 10 - 1 lead on Reyes and had numerous chances to close it out. Reyes got it to 10 - 10, but when Efren scratched on the double hill break it appeared Allen would escape. As there was a cluster on the table, Allen opted for a one nine combo, a shot I reckon he should make two times out of three, but hit it poorly. Reyes still had a tough run to negotiate with a cluster to break out along the way, but rose to the occasion for the shocking comeback win, 11 - 10.

Roschkowski vs Immonen was a good one. Each had some issues with their break, but they really played like champions up to 7 - 7. A couple of uncharacteristic erros by Mika down the stretch , a missed eight ball in particular, ended up costing Mika the match, with Roschkowskli a deserving winner.

Hohmann didn't showed his best against Ernesto Dominguez, but played well enough to get through in a match not really as close as the 11 - 9 score would suggest.

My first look at Kuo was uninspiring. He was very sloppy in his 11 - 8 win over Tony Robles, who never really got started in that match. Pei Wei Chang has a lot of game, and Satoshi Kawabata is playing great pool. I didn't get to catch Dennis Orcullo, but hope to see him play Reyes today.

Don't expect too many updates, as I don't have a laptop. I'm posting from a lobby kiosk at the Riviera. Still, I'll do what I can.

Reflections on Tuesday- Women's Draw

Women's Draw:

The Fishers were the story on Tuesday.

Allison Fisher lost the safety battle in the double hill rack with Pan, who face what I'd call an 80% runout, but when Pan faltered, Allison ran out.

Megan Minerich had a surprisingly easy time with Kelly Fisher and had a chance to run out for a 9-5 victry, but when she faltered, Kelly dug down deep to pull it out 9-8.

Pan had company, as it was a very tough day for two other up and comers, too.

Ouschan scratched while pocketing a ball in each of the first two racks to fall 2-0 down to Herndon, and not long after that, it was 4-0 Herndon. Ouschan rallied and was even at 5-5, but Herndon played exceptional pool down the stretch for a well deserved 9-5 victory. Ouschan's speed control was generally poor throughout the match, and it cost her big time.

Wendy Jans had her chances against Jennifer Chen. Three balls from going up 5-2, she had a very careless scratch on a 7 ball, and the match turned. A missed eight ball could have gotten Jans to 6-6, but the error proved costly, and Chen cruised from there for the 9-5 win.

Reflections on Tuesday - Men's Draw

Archer vs Kuo was magnficent. Here's how it went. JA is Archer, PK is Po Cheng Kuo. Two great players playing at an extremely high level.

1. JA miss of a 4 leaves it hanging but PK has to jump it in even though it's deep in the pocket. PK is up to it, making a fantastic shot, and runs out PK 1-0
2. PK break and run, PK 2-0
3. JA misses makable mnasse on 3 ball, leading to safety battle, controlled and won by PK, PK 3-0.
4. Poor push by PK given back by JA and PK unable to excute safety, selling out. PK 3-1
5. JA break and run, PK 3-2.
6. Fine shot on the 2 by PK, but unlucky scratch sells out. 3-3
7. Dry break by JA leaves good chance for PK, but he fails to run out, so JA 4-3.
8. PK break and run, 4-4.
9. JA break and run, JA 5-4
10. PK break and run, 5-5
11. Dry break by JA but PK misses 2, sells out, JA 6-5.
12. JA makes a magnificent jump in of 1 after dry break by PK. Shot of the match! JA 7-5.
13. JA break and run, JA 8-5
14. PK break and run, JA 8-6
15. JA break and run. JA 9-6.
16. PK break s them well, but a shocking miss of an easy 2 ball sells out. JA 10-6
17. JA break and run ens the match, 11-6

This was Archer at his very best!

In other men's action, Charlie Williams played near flawless pool in building a 9-3 lead over Shawn Putnam and cruised to victory.

That's all for now!