The initial round saw a few surprises:  In the men’s event, 2004 U.S. Open champion Gabe Owen succumbed to Canada’s Paul Potier 11-1, while in the women’s event, Kelly Fisher, who won the latest WPBA stop in North Carolina, was defeated by Kim White 9-7.  Allison Fisher and defending champion at this event, Karen Corr, both advanced in the first round, with wins over Ikumi Ushiroda and Gail Grecar, respectively.

InsidePOOL Magazine’s 2004 Player of the Year, Thomas Engert, capped off the evening rounds with a solid victory over John Schmidt.  Initially, the match began as a break-and-run contest, but soon Engert pulled away to an 8-3 lead in the race to 11.  Schmidt pulled within four games before Engert reached the hill and then won three more, but Engert was in the zone and broke and ran out the last rack for an 11-8 win.

Several more excellent match-ups o­n Monday evening include Tot over “Rocket” Rodney Morris in a hard-fought hill-hill match, Tony Crosby over Earl Strickland in an 11-4 routing, 16-year-old Chia-Ching Wu over Chin-Ching Kang 11-8, and Chris Szuter of Ohio over Bobby Hunter 11-3.  In the women’s division, crowd favorite Vivian Villareal triumphed over Liz Schwartzreich 9-1, Stacy Hurst of Orange, CA, won 9-4 over Kim White, Jeanette Lee defeated Wendy Jans 9-3, and Tiffany Nelson won her match against Hsin Huang 9-4.

Visit InsidePOOL for the latest news o­n the 2005 BCA Open 9-Ball Championship.