Mika's Marathon

JUST ONE ball from clinching the U.S. Open title, Mika Immonen slipped. It might have been the nearly four straight days of pool, playing match after match, working himself so ragged he lost two notches on his belt during a seemingly endless stretch through the losers-side bracket.

But just one ball from victory, Immonen's "Iceman" façade cracked.

A few feet from Nick Varner, the first player to have won back-to-back titles back in 1990, Immonen put the bridge in place for a 1-9 carom that would clinch his second straight U.S. Open title. And then, just for a split second, he abandoned his usual table-side discontent, ditching a furrowed brow for a momentary grin of satisfaction.

The carom was not easy - but it was never in doubt. The cue ball glanced off the left side of 1 ball knocking the 9 in the corner pocket. As the championship-clinching ball crept toward and into the side pocket, Immonen fell back on the floor, releasing a howl of satisfaction and relief - relief that the nearly nonstop run of matches was over. Fourteen matches and four days after Immonen's second-round loss, there was nobody left to eliminate.

"This is the toughest thing I have ever done in my professional career," he said moments after defeating Ralf Souquet, 13-10. "This is extra special because of the long route. It makes it extra sweet."

Compared to his victory last year, Mika Immonen did everything backward at the 2009 U.S. Open - held Oct. 18-24 at the Chesapeake (Va.) Conference Center. Last year, he fell into a routine that had him jumping out to early leads and running away from opponents before they even had a chance. He was playing a game of "catch me if you can" with the 236-player field. And by the final, where he outlasted Ronnie Alcano, 13-10, it was clear nobody was going to be able to put the squeeze on Immonen.

As the reigning champ, though, the 2008 BD Player of the Year dropped just his second match of the tournament, an 11-6 loss to veteran road player Chris Bartram. And thus began the long march through the left side.

Immonen began with a quartet of relatively easy wins, including an 11-7 victory over Thorsten Hohmann, to meet young gun Beau Runningen.

The lanky Minnesotan had Immonen within a rack of elimination, 10-8. But, as would become the norm, Immonen played best with his back against the wall. He took the next three games to squeak by, 11-10.

In the very next round, Immonen again found himself in a hole, this time trailing English 8-Ball convert Scott Higgins, 8-2. But when given the opportunity, Immonen methodically shot is way back into the match. He strung together seven racks to take the lead, then cleaned up a Higgins miss late in the match for an 11-8 win.

"To find the will to come through from there, I thought it was remarkable," Immonen said of his erasing six-game deficit. "I had to have confidence in my ability to string racks when I got a shot at the table, no matter what the score was."

From that point, the dramatic come-from-behind victories became the standard. Down 8-4 to Rodney Morris, he won, 11-9. Down 8-5 to Lee Vann Corteza, he won six straight games for an 11-8 victory. And, finally, there was the 7-4 deficit against Donny Mills in the left-side final that turned into an 11-10 score in Immonen's favor.

The cumulative effect of these Houdini acts instilled Immonen with a confidence and calm. It wasn't a matter of if he'd make a run, it was when - and how many racks would he string together. After winning six matches on the second to last day of the tournament (seven, if you count the match that went well past midnight the night before), Immonen was in the final four. It was no longer a matter of simply surviving each round. Instead, it was time to focus on seeing the finish line.

"You just keep the routine," he said after a 14-hour day at the table. "I beat so many champions today, and I'm still here. I'm still in the hunt for that second [title] in a row."

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