U S Open 10- Ball
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Lee Van Corteza
Down to the Wire Corteza Takes 2010 the table of the few remaining balls and securing a spot U.S. Open 10-Ball Championship in the finals. The U.S. Open 10-Ball Championship, May 17-22 at Lo Li-Wen from Taiwan and Corteza from the Philippines the Riviera Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas had one of the took center stage for the finals at 8 pm. Li-Wen and toughest 128 player open fields in recent U.S. history. Corteza are used to playing in front of a large and Participants included players from 18 countries and attentive crowd. Approximately 300 spectators sat in included 11 world champions, 4 of the top 10 World the Riviera Royale Ballroom Pro Arena and thousands Pool Billiard Association (WPA) ranked women and half viewed the match via The Action Report (TAR) live of the top 50 world ranked men. This heady field was stream. also joined by many top regionally known players from The match initially started slow, with each player trading North America such as Francis Crevier of Canada, Dan thoughtfully executed safeties. However Pin-Li was Louie and Glenn Atwell of Seattle, Frankie Hernandez playing unusually slow, which seemed to actually hinder of New York and Ernesto Dominguez and Sal Butera of his game and soon Corteza had a 7-3 lead. Before the California. start of game 11, Assistant Tournament Director Ken Going into the final day of the premier 6 day event on the Shuman warned both Li-Wen and Corteza to speed up winnerís side were Lo Li-Wen, and Lee Van Corteza. The play or the match would be subject to a shot clock. This following 6 players started on the one loss side: Shane warning was taken seriously by both players and the Van Boening, Charlie Williams, Rodney Morris, Manny pace of the match quickened to a more acceptable level. Chau, Mika Immonen and Francisco Bustamante. The accelerated speed of play benefited Li-Wenís game In the rack your own, call pocket, winner break format, and he appeared to gain confidence and soon tied the any and all things could happen. With this caliber of field match 7-7. Again the match see-sawed back and forth each player was aware their opponents were capable of with neither player keeping a sustainable lead and soon running rack, yet the challenging pro-cut Diamond tables it was hill-hill with one game remaining for essentially encouraged smart safety play when required resulting in $7,500. While both players had their opportunity at the numerous hill-hill nail biting matches. table, Corteza was the man who faced the final three In the quarter finals Bustamante demolished 2009 Player balls for the win. With only the 10-ball remaining, Corteza of the Year Immonen 9-1 and a young unknown, Manny stood back up and laughed at his own nerves. That Chau, come close to knocking out Van Boening. ìThe seems to calm him down and in his gentle and subdued South Dakota Kidî prevailed surviving Chau 9-7. Two manner cut the 10 down the short rail for the win. of the most studied players in pool, Bustamante and The 2010 U.S. Open 10-Ball Championship was Van Boening, now would face one another to see who sponsored by OB Cues (www.obcues.com), Diamond progressed and who would go out in 4th place. Today Billiard Products (www.diamondbilliards.net), Simonis was the ìKidsî day. Van Boeningís break was in strong (www.simoniscloth.com), Aramith (www.saluc.com), form and subsequently bounced Bustamante out of the Delta-13 (www.delta-13.com), Billiards Digest (www. tournament 9-6. billiardsdigest.com)† TAR, BadBoys Billiard Productions The next round featured Van Boening and Corteza. (www.badboysbp.com) and BreakRAK (www.breakrak. Immediately out of the gate Van Boening took a strong com) and produced by CueSports International (CSI). lead (4-1) with his booming break in place. Corteza CueSports International is dedicated to creating more got off to a slow start with an uncharacteristically tight choices for all players. CSI is the parent company of the stroke. While it appeared Van Boening would cruise into BCA Pool League, the National Championship Series the finals, Corteza gathered himself and meticulously (NCS), and the USA Pool League. CSI also produces chipped away at Van Boeningís lead by playing dead on independent events such as the U.S. Bar Table safeties and smoothing out his stroke and adjusting his Championships, the Jay Swanson Memorial and the rhythm. Soon the score was 5-5. However, Van Boening U.S. Open 10-Ball Championship. Visit www.playcsipool. answered back to Cortezaís rally, by aggressively taking com, www.playbca.com and www.playusapool.com or the next 3 games putting him on the hill. call 702-719-7665 for more information about CSI and Both players are accustomed to winning and do not its divisions. bow down to pressure easily. Corteza, never wavering from his calm demeanor had an opportunity in game 14 as Van Boening broke dry for the first time in the match. The room was stunned and waited to see if Corteza could capitalize on Van Boeningís misfortune. Quietly and calmly, Corteza played perfect on each shot keeping Van Boening in his chair. Within 20 minutes the match went from 8-5 to hill-hill with Corteza breaking. Not being a run out pattern, Corteza and Van Boening volleyed a few safeties before either had a good shot at running out again. Being a call shot format, while the table was wide open, Van Boening had a tough choice, either call a carom off the 6-ball or decide to go for a cross side bank. He chose the cross side but missed and pocketed a non-called ball thus relinquishing the table back to Corteza. Corteza quietly started back to work running Lo Li-Wen
June 2010 - Rackem Magazine 9