Greetings from Atlantic City to all. Today looks like a beauty in the US Open 9-ball Brackets.
In my view, the truly great match in the round of 64 is Yapp vs Pehlivanovic, who wound up on the "B" side after a double hill loss to Oscar Dominguez. Of the two, Yapp, the 2021 silver medalist, is probably in slightly better form, having won his last two events, the Michigan Open and the Sandcastle Open, but Pehlivanovic beat him in their last hookup, the semifinals of the World Games in July, with truly magnificent play.
Barring a major upset, Filler will play Gorst in the Round of 32 at 2:30 PM Eastern time. The Russian ban got in the way of bringing this rivalry into its fullest bloom, but that makes this one of the most anticipated matches in a long, long time. It's sad that one of the world's two best players will fail to reach the last 16.
If there is a live longshot in today's play, it might just be Venezuelan Jesus Atencio, who is playing magnificent pool to this point, but his draw is very difficult, so he'll really have to earn it if he's to survive the day's play. Dutch pro Mark Bijsterbosch is also showing increasingly strong form and might be another live long shot.
Other than in the very late stages of an event, it's not often that I'm on time for the first match of any session, but that 10:00 AM match between Shaw and Corteza seems too good to pass up, so I'll make an exception.