Plenty of star players did show up, however. Last year’s Big Apple champion, Charlie Williams, defeated Michael Yednak and Geoffrey Bower to keep his position in the winners’ bracket. Top seed Johnny Archer defeated Brian Yi and Noel Bensuto in the first two rounds. Jeremy Jones, the 2003 U.S. Open champ, advanced in the first round because of a forfeit from an absent Jimmy Fusco, then defeated Corey McGregor in the next round. Even George San Souci, who is entering a lot of tournament these days for a supposedly retired stick, received a nice bump forward with the forfeit from Ronnie Wiseman in his first match.

The Big Apple field has attracted a fair amount of foreign talent as well. Though Japanese superstar Hiroshi Takenaka fell to New Yorker Frankie Hernandez, many others are still firmly o­n the winners’ side. Both Mika Immonen and Francisco Bustamante took byes in their first rounds and easily defeated their opponents in the second. Ralf Souquet defeated Scott Ireland and Lenny Favata to earn his next bracket. Yet the most surprising upset has to be the game that was never played: Despite winning over Chris Lynch in the first match, Italy’s Fabio Petroni forfeited his second match and allowed Evan Broxmeyer to advance to the next tier.

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