Matt Harmon
Congratulations to Matt on winning his 5th Open Singles Title, in doing so becoming the most decorated Open Singles player in ACTEBA history.
Matt did it the hard way, losing his first match to Michael Hazilias before facing a 1-4 deficit to Sterling Cross and certain elimination. But Matt rallied, winning the last four frames and then his next 3 against Anthony Chia to set up an unlikely finals spot by edging Hazza out by a solitary frame after Matt, Hazza and Anthony all finished on two wins each. Sterling was the unlucky one, but can still celebrate 4th spot in the ACT for the year.
Matt then went on to complete a 9-5 victory over Anthony in the final.
The day was highlighted by the aggressive approach all four players took into each frame, with some unbelievable white ball control displayed by all.
For Top 4 Results and Frame Counts please click here:
http://www.acteba.com.au/downloads/2010_Open_Singles_Top4_Results.xls
And for stats for all players in the tournament please click here:
http://www.acteba.com.au/downloads/2010_Open_Singles_Full_Stats.xls
For a full report, click through to the rest of the article below.
Chris Jones
ACTEBA Tournament DirectorSo congratulations to Matt Harmon on becoming the 2010 ACT Open Singles Champion. Matt marked the 10th anniversary of his first Open Singles Title by racking up his 5th, in doing so becoming the most decorated Open Singles player by passing Steven Woods’ four State Titles. Matt’s two doubles titles gives him seven ACT Titles in total, now just one behind Steve’s total of eight. With back to back titles, Matt also joined Steve as the only players to defend their titles twice, Steve having achieved this with 3 straight titles. With a legacy stretching back 15 years, Matt is still obviously at the top of his game and looks set to give the challengers a great run for their money for years to come.
The journey to this result began 6 weeks ago, with a record 183 players entering the Open Singles Tournament. The tournament was to see a phenomenal 4,705 frames played before Matt tasted victory, but while there are many stories to be told along that journey, today was all about four players. With the number one seed eliminated in the Round of 32, the remaining 3 members of the top 4 ranked players won through to the deciding day. 2nd seed Anthony Chia, 3rd seed Michael Hazilias and 4th seed Matt were joined by ACT newcomer Sterling Cross in the round robin shootout for the State Title.
The format was a round robin of race to 5, followed by a final of race to 9. Each match was started with a lag for the first break to be followed by alternating breaks. With tie breakers to be decided firstly by frames won, the pressure was on the players firstly to win, but also to avoid heavy defeats.
Round one began with the top two qualifiers, Matt and Hazza, racing to 5, as Anthony and Sterling took aim at each other on the far table. Hazza won the lag against Matt and found a good early rhythm, jumping to an easy 3-0 lead. After swapping frames for 4-1 to Hazza, Matt made a match of it by bringing home the next two frames to have a sniff at 4-3, but Hazza was too good in the end for a 5-3 win.
Sterling grabbed the first frame against Anthony, but despite some scratchy play by both players Anthony ran the next four to take a dominant 4-1 lead. As with the first match, Sterling pushed to make a game of it by taking the next two for a 3-4 deficit, but Anthony ultimately got up 5-3.
As the dust settled and cobwebs began to dissipate, the spectators were hoping the players would finally show what they were capable of in round two. With hours still left in the day, the players were now starting to break free of tension and play a more attacking game.
It obviously wasn’t working for Matt early, however, as he continued to struggle with his potting, dropping four straight to Sterling to trail 1-4. When I say these players struggle with their potting, for the record, remember the work they put on the cue ball to create the next five opportunities in one shot and realise why they might miss one or two…
On the other table, Anthony and Hazza had traded frames for a 2-2 score, but Anthony played his best eight ball yet to finish it quickly by running out 5-2. Unfortunately for Hazza, this scoreline was going to come back to haunt him.
Sterling had a chance to finish the match with Matt 5-2, but missed a tough black to let Matt back in. Seeing red, Matt took his chance and somehow scraped back from 1-4 down to come out on top 5-4.
As we entered the final round, nothing was certain as frame counts could come into play no matter what the results of the final two matches. Anthony looked secure but results could definitely conspire against him, while Sterling’s 4 frames against Matt would play massively into his favour should there be a tiebreaker. Bottom line was that a win to Anthony would see him through but anything else and the calculators come out.
Knowing he still had a chance, Sterling started strongly against Michael, picking up the first two frames, whilst Matt and Anthony were locked in some tight frames. Hazza, who had been in decent form all day, began to show the style that had taken him to the number one ranking not long ago as he took complete control of the match in running out the next five frames for a 5-2 victory. Some of his finishes were so clinical that it made you wonder if he had an opponent. This is not to take anything away from Sterling, who for most of the day was in extraordinary touch, but just gave up frames at critical times and ran into a rampant Hazza at the death.
So with Sterling finishing 4th in the ACT, all eyes were the Matt / Anthony match. The figures stood that Hazza had finished with two match wins and 12 frame wins. A win to Anthony would see him and Hazza through on 3 and 2 match wins respectively, but a win to Matt and we are looking at frame count. With Matt on 8 frames already, his win would place him above Hazza on 13 frames, which then would mean that it would come down to whether or not Anthony could win the 3 frames required to top Hazza and nail a spot in the Final.
Those tight frames I mentioned earlier between Matt and Anthony all fell in Matt’s favour, as he stretched his comeback to 7 straight frames and a 3-0 lead over Anthony. At this point Hazza was looking good, but Anthony fought hard and dragged it back to 2-3. Now anything goes, as a comeback from Anthony sees Hazza through, while a quick 5-2 finish from Matt gets Hazza and Anthony in a playoff. Any suggestion of relaxing can be thrown out the window as both players needed the result to qualify for the final.
Anthony then completed a stunning comeback from 0-3 down to draw it even at 3-3. Knowing he had taken the frame that qualified him for the final, Anthony showed a rare display of emotion with a fist pump to his teammates in the crowd. This left Hazza hoping for an Anthony victory, but Matt closed this door by taking out the last two frames to win 5-3.
So with Anthony, Matt and Hazza tied on two matches each, Anthony and Matt qualified for the final with 13 frames against an unlucky Hazza’s 12. The players for the final had been decided after more than an hour of tension on all three players’ behalf, a disappointed Hazza eliminated by a single frame.
Watching all four players today made you wonder what goes through their mind as they scan the table. While most of us can only think two or three shots ahead against an open table, seeing the expressions of these guys made you almost imagine a Terminator style view from behind their eyes as they visualized angles from the first pot to the moment they lined up the black, all calculated in the space of a few seconds. It really was a pleasure to watch them at work, from the cool calculations made each shot by Matt to the swift, clinical runouts executed by Hazza at his best.
Matt and Anthony then took a break before the final, with Matt preparing for his 9th Open Singles final in 11 years, while Anthony only had the experience of one Doubles final to fall back on. But this doesn’t mean anything, as Anthony had clearly been the class player of the day so far, while Matt had been an eight ball away from a 2-5 defeat and certain elimination not that long ago.
Both players had played aggressively all day and continued that tactic as they swapped the first two frames in the final, Matt running out the second after Anthony failed to pot a ball on the break. A nice little collection of object balls over a corner pocket saw the third frame revert to some great tactical play, with Matt breaking the shackles to finish 4 balls and a 2-1 lead. A big break from Anthony left Matt in a tough spot in the 4th, but despite missing his first shot he was able to grab the early advantage and took a 3-1 lead, with still nothing separating the play of the pair apart form the scoreboard.
Anthony took the next frame after Matt missed a relatively easy black, but Matt responded by taking advantage of a return missed black by Anthony to maintain the lead at 4-2. The 7th frame saw a long tactical battle as once again a number of balls came to the same party over the same pocket. Anthony finally broke the mould to set up a nice black, only to miscue and hand Matt two visits, which were more than enough for a 5-2 lead to Matt.
Anthony took the lead in the next frame, only to spring an unexpected in-off and hand Matt two visits on his last object ball. Matt missed his first attempt and left himself snookered for his second visit. The pair then jockeyed for white ball position before Matt took his first chance to finish and a 6-2 lead.
Despite a four frame deficit, Anthony could point to three frames he gave away and the scoreline could have been quite different. Matt was obviously drawing on his experience just three frames away from the title and won easily in the next frame to lead 7-2 and seemingly put an end to the contest. But as the hours of consecutive high tension eight ball was taking its toll on both players at this stage, Matt ran aground when he missed his next black and Anthony produced some quality shots to tag one back.
Anthony continued this form into the next frame, narrowly missing a black on another great out to leave Matt with a lot of work to do. With the black over the bag and one last object ball for Anthony, Matt knew he had to finish but couldn’t get there and was forced to snooker. Anthony managed to escape the foul and with too much work still left for Matt continued his comeback to 7-4.
All match both players had shown their intention to attack at every opportunity, with defence only being an option when they made mistakes. To their credit, they continued with the style that had enabled them to reach this stage as Anthony completed a superb master break and the match was alive again at 7-5.
Matt replied in fine style with a master break of his own to move just one frame shy of his 5th title. The pressure on both players was immense as the 14th frame commenced but it was obvious that Matt’s experience alone won this last frame as he made the shots he needed to make while Anthony was unable to convert opportunities, giving Matt the title 9 frames to 5.
Both players had shown exceptional skill all through the final, with some amazing white ball control that basically left me dumbfounded at times. While Matt seemed an easy victor, Anthony made him work hard for every frame and was his own worst enemy in a few of them. But hindsight is a dangerous toy and who knows what might have transpired had Anthony potted those two blacks…
This appeared to be the hardest Matt had worked for any of his titles, and full credit to Anthony for a great final. Including their round three match, they basically played each other for 4 straight hours and pushed each other to the limit. You can go and watch your nine ball on Foxtel and see a runout off the break every frame for all I care, but the tension created by the tight frames witnessed today was as good as the Second Test in the ’05 Ashes. I know I don’t play Div One and get to see these four guys every week but I can assure you they definitely left nothing in the bag today. A massive congratulations to Matt, Anthony, Hazza and Sterling for providing what was the most exciting Top 4 in recent years.
So as the Open Singles Title goes to the Fyshwick Tavern Embalmers for 11th straight year (salary cap anyone?), I must thank the people who made this tournament possible for everyone. First and foremost is Matt Power, for his advice and undeniable experience in assisting in formatting the groups and overall tournament decisions. Just when I thought I knew what I was doing, Matt had another option for me to consider. Cheers Matt.
All 183 players (except those who didn’t show up) can appreciate also the efforts of the adjudicators, without whom the groups would not run as smoothly as they do. I would especially like to thank Scrol, Cath Rollinson, Trent Billington, Penny Foudoulis and Jason Scott for their tireless efforts over the past six weeks in ensuring the players have someone to keep things on track. These five have been there basically every weekend for us even when they were playing. But this is not forgetting Pete Madden, Jack Dehm, Dennis Bingley, Bushie, Jeremy Smith, our fearless leader Joseph Morrall, his offsider Matt Kendrick, Chippa, Nicole Welsh, Rebecca Billington (who gets a special mention for driving Trent everywhere) and Semisi Naupoto, all of whom gave their time to help out adjudicating.
A big thank you as well to the venues who opened their doors to us, including The Maram, Canberra Labor Club, The Basement, Kaleen Bar & Bistro and Ojo Café and Bar. Your generous donation of tables and venues is greatly appreciated.
So I’ll sign off from the 2010 Open Singles, and look forward to a successful remainder of the year, with plenty of tournaments still to come.
Regards
Chris Jones
ACTEBA Tournament Director
