Three major upsets marked the early rounds of the Olhausen San Francisco Classic hosted by the Bay Area's newest upscale billiard room, the Broken Rack, in Emeryville CA.

The first top-ranked player who made an early trip to the one-loss bracket was Ewa Laurance, who lost 9-7 to Shelly Barnes. Barnes' victory was even more amazing given that she played the match wearing a leg brace, the result of a softball injury which has kept her out of the last two Classic Tour events. By the end of the match she was in obvious pain, and using a crutch to move around the table.

Next to fall were Gerda Hofstatter, who lost to Kerry Hartsfield 9-8, and Mary Guarino, also losing a case game match - in this case, to Nadine Mazzola.

By Friday night only 8 players were undefeated: Allison Fisher, Robin Dodson, Aileen Pippen, Dawn Hopkins, Jeanette Lee, Vivian Villerreal, Belinda Campos, and Loree Jon Jones.

Saturday's matches were sold-out by late afternoon. Spectators were treated to an unusual number of exciting hill-hill matches, with the result that the last round started at midnight rather than the scheduled 10:30pm. At 1:30 am when the last ball dropped only 8 players remained to move into the Sunday rounds:

ALLISON FISHER - defeated Candi Rego 9-5 and Laura Smith 9-8 on Friday, Dodson 9-1 and Hopkins 9-6 on Saturday. LOREE JON JONES - one of her stronger tournaments this year; defeated Jan McWorter 9-7, Hartsfield 9-3, Helena Thornfeldt 9-6, and Villarreal 9-8.

Both Fisher and Jones are undefeated, and guaranteed minimum 3rd place finish. They will play each other at 3pm Sunday (PDT).

Guaranteed minimum 5th/6th finish are DAWN HOPKINS and VIVIAN VILLARREAL . Hopkins won 3 matches before losing to Fisher. Villarreal survived 2 case-game matches on Friday against Diana Minor and Linda Haywood, beat Lee 9-6 on Saturday, then came out on the losing end of a 9-8 battle against Jones.

The other 4 players still alive on the one-loss side are ROBIN DODSON and JEANETTE LEE, as well as two non-seeded players: KATHIE MACDONALD defeated young gun Holly Sholes 9-7, fellow Canadian Maureen Seto 9-8, lost to Lee 9-7, eliminated Rego 9-3 and Haywood 9-3, before grinding out her victory over Aileen Pippin 9-8. This will be her best WPBA tournament finish to date (guaranteed 7th/8th).

AMY PAUL made the longest trip through the one-loss bracket to earn an opportunity to play Jeanette Lee on Sunday. After shutting out Jan Numan 9-0 in the first round, she lost to Haywood 9-7 on Friday night. She then had to play a grueling five matches on Saturday, winning over Grace Nakamura 9-5, Fran Crimi 9-6, Mazzola 9-8, Ming Ng 9-8, and Thornfeldt 9-4.