Player: Mika Immonen
Event: U.S. Open 9-Ball Championship
Location: Chesapeake, Virginia Date: October 24, 2009



In the wake of Mika Immonen's untimely passing last month, the outpouring of love and support from thousands of fans, friends, teammates and rivals showed the 52-year-old was more than just a pool player. But Immonen, establishing himself as one of this century's greatest players in a BCA Hall of Fame career, certainly was a pool player.

In 2009, entering the U.S. Open 9-Ball Championship as its reigning champion, he put together a performance that would arguably be his greatest. In the 216-player field, Immonen dropped his second round match, bouncing him to the one-loss side, where he proceeded to win 13 consecutive do-or-die matches in three days, often playing late into the night to keep his repeat dream alive.

His run through the left-side bracket included a handful of dramatic comeback victories in races-to-11, erasing deficits against Beau Runningen (10-8), Scott Higgins (8-2), Lee Vann Corteza (8-5), and Rodney Morris (8-4).

Eventually earning his seat in the final, opposite Ralf Souquet, he needed to come from behind one more time, as the German went ahead 7-4. But Immonen raced ahead to get on the hill, 12-10. breaking for the title. Sinking the 4 and the 8 on the snap, Immonen caught a fortunate roll as the cue ball slowed just before reaching the spot. He had a natural angle for a billiard off the 1 and into the 9, which was along the footrail, not even a diamond from the bottom right corner.

Using the bridge, while checking cue ball's tangent line off the 1 a few times, Immonen made the tricky shot look easy, dropping the 9 for the victory.

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