I just must have watched one of the most inept performances ever in a major tournament. The match (and I'm being generous to call it that) between De Luna and Navarrete was a snoozefest from start to finish, one miss after another and poorly played position shots in between. I hestitate to call either of these guys pros, since any good amateur player would overwhelm them.
De Luna's game has slipped more in the last decade than any pro I can ever remember. He's gone from being a top player to a complete non entity in the pool world, hanging on by reputation alone. Neither guy could run out with five or more balls on the table and they were both missing relative hangers. De Luna would labor over easy shots, looking at it from every angle and acting like there was some problem in making the ball and playing position. Often he was right, as he would then butcher the shot. Late in the match he had BIH with all the balls out in the open. He studied the table at length and decided a safety was a better option. He then made a mess of a simple safety and gave Navarrete a wide open shot. Stunning is all I can say.
In the final game De Luna got BIH again with five open balls and made it look like he was climbing Mt. Everest. And it was! He hung up and easy, short eight ball to hand the match to Navarrete.
If you don't believe me, watch this one on Youtube. I dare you to sit through all nineteen games. That's how bad it was.
Jerico Bonus
