There's lots of distractions to players at the Open, mostly unintentional, but distractions none the less -- people constantly moving past tables as they come and come go, cameras that flash now and then (despite warning of "no flash photography please", the odd crash or two, people talking loudly at times. Mostly the players just deal with it or occasionally scowl at some offender.
A couple of what I thought were really bad ones though happened on the last day in the finals.
I sat through the Alex P. vs Darren Appleton match this afternoon in the tv arena section. I think Darren was up 8 or 9 to Alex's 6. Came a shot on the six ball down by the corner pocket with two other balls within inches. Whatever Alex was trying to do he took a while to think it out, got down to shot, began to stroke and about the time he pulled the trigger some guy in the top row of tv seats just behind me got a phone call. He had some kind of musical ringtone. He couldn't turn it off. The whole arena heard it because otherwise the place was silent as church waiting to see what Alex was going to do. Alex missed the shot. The music kept playing for another two minutes while the guy tried to turn it off.
As I recall Alex never shot again or perhaps he got one more shot. In any case, he was toast after the phone incident. Sadly, I think the match turned against Alex on that one incident. Alex handled it well at the time, telling the guy "I told you to do that when he's shooting," pointing at Darren. He got a laugh, but he was clearly bothered the incident happened when it did.
--Earlier in the same match, Shawn Putnam was playing Dennis Hatch on a table to the side of the tv table featuring the Alex - Darren match. When Shawn went up 4-0 against Dennis, the floor announcer gets on his mic to tell everyone that Shawn had just "derailed the D train." Maybe it was just my imagination, but it seemed to me that Dennis visibly slumped for a second. Now who really needs to be told during an intense and important match that they've been "derailed." It was an unnecessary announcement that didn't tell the spectators anything they couldn't already see. Shawn went on to knock Dennis right out of further contention. (The announcer was a pretty good guy in general, but still, dude, what the hey!)
A couple of what I thought were really bad ones though happened on the last day in the finals.
I sat through the Alex P. vs Darren Appleton match this afternoon in the tv arena section. I think Darren was up 8 or 9 to Alex's 6. Came a shot on the six ball down by the corner pocket with two other balls within inches. Whatever Alex was trying to do he took a while to think it out, got down to shot, began to stroke and about the time he pulled the trigger some guy in the top row of tv seats just behind me got a phone call. He had some kind of musical ringtone. He couldn't turn it off. The whole arena heard it because otherwise the place was silent as church waiting to see what Alex was going to do. Alex missed the shot. The music kept playing for another two minutes while the guy tried to turn it off.
As I recall Alex never shot again or perhaps he got one more shot. In any case, he was toast after the phone incident. Sadly, I think the match turned against Alex on that one incident. Alex handled it well at the time, telling the guy "I told you to do that when he's shooting," pointing at Darren. He got a laugh, but he was clearly bothered the incident happened when it did.
--Earlier in the same match, Shawn Putnam was playing Dennis Hatch on a table to the side of the tv table featuring the Alex - Darren match. When Shawn went up 4-0 against Dennis, the floor announcer gets on his mic to tell everyone that Shawn had just "derailed the D train." Maybe it was just my imagination, but it seemed to me that Dennis visibly slumped for a second. Now who really needs to be told during an intense and important match that they've been "derailed." It was an unnecessary announcement that didn't tell the spectators anything they couldn't already see. Shawn went on to knock Dennis right out of further contention. (The announcer was a pretty good guy in general, but still, dude, what the hey!)
