U.S Open Day 1: Corr Upsets Ko Pin Yi

By: Markus Noé

Day one at the U.S Open got underway and right away there was a major upset. Karen Corr who is arguably the best female player of all time, defeated heavy favorite to win this event and this years double World Champion in 9 and 10 ball Ko Pin Yi. North Americans will remember him from this years World 9 Ball Final in Qatar where he beat Shane VanBoening.

This match was tied at 4-4, when according to reports Corr took the match over to go on to win 11-4. News of this match quickly made its way around the pool world as this could be the biggest upset in U.S Open history. Corr came into this tournament at 250-1 and beat one of the top three favorite players to win this event right out of the gate.

John Morra 

In other news, Canadians John Morra and Jason Klatt both cruised through to the second round with 11-2 wins. Klatt was up against fellow Canadian and former Vice President of the Canadian Billiard & Snooker Association Kyle Richards. While Morra made quick work of Fabio Petroni. Alex Pagulayan was also in action today and he won his match 11-5 against American Levandowsky. Another Canadian Martin Daigle a regular on the Joss Tour won his match today 11-1 and meets up with the 2014 World Champion Niels Feijen in the second round.

Five time U.S Open Champion Earl Strickland got off to a good start today beating Scott Frost 11-9. The "Pearl" has come in focused on winning his 6th U.S Open according to his social media presence. At one time it seemed unimaginable for anyone to equal his 5 U.S Open titles. However SVB who has won three in a row and has four total, is looking to equal this feat. This loss for Frost puts a strain on his Mosconi Cup hopes as he needs a top 8 to make it on the team.

In the final session of the day there were some big match ups. Ruslan Chinakhov of Russia was up against Ramil Gallego of the Philippines. With some strong play Chinakhov got off to a great start going up 5-0. Gallego never looked comfortable in this match and ended up losing 11-4. Make sure to check in daily here at Cue Sport Nation for updates on the 40th edition of the U.S Open. Also make sure to go to www.accu-stats.com to purchase the stream. You can buy a pass for the entire week or individual sessions. For full bracket updates along with live scoring go to www.azbilliards.com.

Notable Scores

Rodney Morris 11 vs Chu BJC 9
Johnny Archer 11 vs Tom D'Alphonso
Jorge Rodriguez 11 vs Justin Hall
Sky Woodward 11 vs Imran Majid 10
K.Brisbon 11 vs J. Ignacio 10
Roberto Gomez 11 vs J.Siekkinen 9
SVB 11 vs Shaun Wilkie 6