EFREN REYES WINNING THE 1994 US OPEN AGINST NICK VARNER
win in 2016. I think it is generally agreed that pool in the US has fallen as Asia and European players now dominate most major events. This is directly reflected in looking at the history of the US Open. It’s not that you can’t find other examples to track; it’s just that I think the US Open offers the best dataset overall, with its long history. The US Open has also been a showcase for things like Corey Deuel throwing the first and only shutout in the finals in 2001. Part of Corey’s dominance eventually led to new rules regarding the soft break. We’ve seen dark horse winners like Gabe Owen and John Schmidt. We’ve seen legends built with Earl Strickland beating
players like Sigel, Rempe, Reyes, Ellin, and Omura and eventually winning five titles, the first of two to reach that number. The US Open changed hands from the longstanding founder Barry Behrman to his children in 2016, who ran with the help of Pat Fleming, and finally to Matchroom in 2018, who have taken pool further in the last five years than anyone else has in the last twenty-five. The fields are growing to match World Championship levels, and they are now being mirrored in events all over the world. Another thing to come out of the sale of the US Open to Matchroom was Pat Fleming creating the International Open, which has become just as big and almost as prestigious.
Matchroom has added more new events like the UK Open and the Spanish Open as well as the Peri Open and the Asian Open Championship. They have events like the World Cup of Pool, the Premier Pool League, and the World Pool Masters. The crown jewel event in terms of hype and presentation is, of course, the Mosconi Cup. In recent years, though, the US has begun to increase training and events for its junior players, like the JIC Tour and the BEF event, to send our young players to the Junior World Championship. From these, we are starting to see some positive results in the rise of our younger talent. We have some distance to go, but we are taking steps in the SPM BILLIARDS MAGAZINE
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