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Former U.S. Open Winners Knocked to Losers' Bracket
Sep 27, 2006, 9:08 AM

With a chaotic day two behind them, the 219-player field competing in this year's U.S. Open will start to be chiseled away as the first knock-out round takes place today, Sept. 27.

An unexpected player to be fighting for life on the one-loss side is last year's U.S. Open champion Alex Pagulayan. The defending champ was outplayed by Canada's Tyler Edey, 11-8. Another former champion, Jeremy Jones, who won in 2003, joins Pagulayan after a tough match against Jerry Slivka. Slivka was on point and paralyzed Jones in the last two racks, sending him westward with 11-9 flourish.

The new guard beat the old as both "Machine Gun" Luc Salvas and Allen Hopkins faltered 11-5 to Shane Van Boening and Darren Appleton, respectively.

The most exciting match of the evening took place between Nick Varner and Jeff Beckley, whose marathon match lasted nearly two and a half hours. At last, at hill-hill, Varner was able to shoot out of a spectacular safety by Beckley, but got so far out of line that he couldn't run out. That mistake spelled his end and Beckley beat him, 11-10.

Top players advancing through the second round on Tuesday included Gabe Owen, Corey Deuel, Johnny Archer, Marcus Chamat, Jose Parica, Tony Robles, Santos Sambajon and Charlie Williams.