Final Verdict: Immonen Can Win It

Immonen regained his swagger and emotional balance in the final.

The race-to-13 contest was essentially over, although Alcano put up a fight. In a desperate gambit, Alcano started breaking at full power - the table earlier had preferred medium breaks - and managed to string together some racks.

This time, Immonen kept his head and weathered a few wonky safeties without wigging out. Alcano drew to 10-7, but a no-contact foul in the next rack allowed Immonen to claim another game. Alcano scratched in the next frame to make it 12-7. Immonen won the key defensive battle in the case game and ran out for the $40,000 title. Mission accomplished.

After losing his second U.S. Open final in a row, Alcano was the one left to ponder - like Immonen in 2001 - if he wasn't the victim of some kind of curse. He all but refused to comment after the match, shyly pushing away the microphone as commentator Jim Wych tried to interview him for the Open's live Webcast.

Immonen, on the other hand, started thinking in terms of his place in pool history, having gone from the answer to a trivia question to one of the game's elite champions in the space of one match.

"This is a little monkey I got off my back," said Immonen, who was subsequently named to Europe's 2008 Mosconi Cup team. "This is a benchmark in any pool player's career. It shows I didn't just fluke the world chamionship [in 2001]. I'm also a U.S. Open champion. Nobody can take that away from me, and it feels great."

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