Actually, Fedor unscrewed 5-1 behind in the race to nine, allowing the diehard railbirds like me to go to bed.
I think he was conserving energy, having to play the banks final Sunday at 12:00 and the one-pocket final immediately after that. He also surely recognized that Josh was in dead stroke, having just dismissed SVB 9-0 with a TPA 1.000 performance in the quarterfinal and now way ahead of Fedor.
In retrospect, Fedor's decision appears to have been a wise one, as he won the banks, the one pocket and the Master of the Table on Sunday, walking away with some serious cash.
What about allowing top tier players to enter the competition at a later round. I don't know, perhaps if you are rated over 750 or reached round 7 in the last two years you enter the competition at round 5 --or something like that?