SJM at the Las Vegas Open

sjm · 2026-02-26T19:52:10+00:00

Just got home from five days of sweating the Las Vegas Open at the Westgate Hotel in Vegas. I was impressed. Overview The field quality in the singles was uniformly high, with nearly all the stars of rotation pool on hand, although Yapp and FSR missed the event due to the Matchroom PLP in Florida. Even though I hate shootouts, I like the best of three races to four format and, thankfully, very few critical matches were decided by shootout. In the Men’s Event, Filler was the story. It seemed the pool gods had it in for him when his path to the title included three world champions in Biado, SVB and Gorst, but he beat all three of them and won the title. The first set of the final between Filler and Gorst was a dandy, and Fedor made two different bank shots at double hill to win the set. Unfortunately, what looked like a good one became a dud as Filler won the next eight racks to secure the title. In the women’s event, thing were very competitive, and a couple of surprises landed both Mast and Zlateva in the quarterfinals. with Zlateva making it to the semis. Wei, Centeno, Ouschan and Tkach were the ones showing the best form, but it was Wei and Centeno reaching the final, with Wei scoring an impressive victory. In the mixed doubles, Josh and Pia Filler had to beat the super-strong team of Carlo Biado and Han Yu in the first round, but after getting past them, they cruised to the title. I was there for just day one of the team event, but I have to say that I found it electrifying. The team of three matches, each featuring two men and one woman, offered great entertainment. Germany (Filler, Neuhausen, Filler) was hoping to defend, but much work lay ahead for them when I left Vegas. Josh Filler was in search of the almost inconceivable trifecta of winning the singles, the mixed doubles and the teams. I’ll believe it when I see it! I’ll still take a Matchroom 9ball major over 10ball any day of the week, but I like what I am seeing from Predator and, before I left, I gave Karim some positive feedback and thanked him for a great event. On a separate note ….. Savannah Showing Some Development She is still the second best female American teen behind Sofia Mast, who came fifth in the singles, but I saw some things I liked from sixteen-year-old Savannah Easton, who has, undeniably, been an elite ball-pocketer since she was fourteen. I noted in a post of a few months ago that her pattern play is better than it was a year ago, but now I am seeing the first signs of some tactical development in her game. Relative to the many teen phenoms I have watched over the years (examples include Siming Chen, Han Yu, Loree Jon Jones, Jean Balukas, Jasmin Ouschan, Monica Webb and Ga Young Kim), Savannah’s progress has been slow, but I am encouraged by what I am seeing. Savannah is certainly not a contender at the majors yet, but she is moving forward. Top 25 in the world (as measured by Fargo rate) might be a reachable goal by age eighteen. I wish her every possible success in 2026 and beyond. Socially I caught up with way too many players and friends to name, but it was great to catch up with the pool gang as always. Conclusion If you never been to the Las Vegas Open, I hope that one day you get the chance. It is something special.