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Mike Panozzo Saturday, October 04, 1997, 07:09 PM
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The most anticipated match of the WPA World 9-Ball Championship failed to live up to expectations. Several hundred fans jammed the bleachers in the far corner of the Grand Ballroom of the Arlington Hilton in Arlington Heights, Ill., for the quarterfinal men's division match that pitted Filipino Efren Reyes and American Johnny Archer - arguably the planet's top two 9-ball players. With the tournament's shift to single elimination for the final four rounds, the Archer/Reyes match had a sense of urgency to it...although Reyes' play would have indicated otherwise. In an uncharacteristic display of poor position and botched shots, Reyes barely made the 1996 Pro Billiards Tour player of the year break a sweat. Archer hammered his top rival, 13-4, to advance to the elite eight in the 64-player field of the $75,000 championship event. "I don't know what was wrong," said a disgruntled Reyes following the match. "Johnny played well, making balls on the break. And when I got behind, I lost my stroke." Archer, on the other hand, was in full command of his stroke but realized that Reyes was less than magical. "Efren did make mistakes," Archer stated, "but the table was playing a lot tougher than it has all week. I out of line the whole match. I didn't stay in position but I was still able to make balls." Keen to the significance of the build-up surrounding his match, Archer fought nerves by poking fun at his own position play on pushouts. Said Archer, "I'm just trying to relax myself at the table, because I get nervous all the time."
"It's nothing against Bustamante," said Pierce, "but we (PBT) came here as a team and I feel this is a team effort." He later added with a smile, "It'd be nice if I could represent the PBT in the winner's circle, too." Pierce and Wetch will meet in one quarterfinal match Saturday evening, while Archer takes on Finland's Mika Immonen, who beat Sweden's Tom Storm, 13-7. |
Archer will be joined in the final eight by two of his American PBT compatriots - Jimmy
Wetch and Reed Pierce (pictured on the right). Both players endured grueling 13-12
matches to advance, with Pierce coming from behind to topple Francisco Bustamante of
the Philippines, and Wetch outlasting Nein Hui Cheng of Taiwan. The PBT troika are the
lone remaining Americans in the men's field, with North America's PCA and Senior Tour
players all having been ousted. After closing out his match with Bustamante, Pierce
commented to onlookers that his win was "more for pride than anything.