THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 16, 1996 TAG: 9609160143
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LEE TOLLIVER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 57 lines
Rodney Morris let out a resilient whoop after sinking the 8 ball. The way he's been shooting pool lately, the 9 ball was a gimme.
Morris is the hottest thing going in the early stages of the 12-stop Pro Billiards Tour, winning his second tournament in a row Sunday night at the Pavilion - capturing billiards' prestige event in the 21st annual U.S. Open 9 Ball Championships in front of nearly 1,000 people.
The 25-year-old Hawaiian won last week's 9-ball stop in Puerto Rico. With the Open's $25,000 top prize - the most ever in the U.S. Open - Morris has won nearly $50,000 in two weeks.
Morris defeated Efren Reyes of the Philippines 11-6 in Sunday's race to 11 games final.
Reyes won the tour's first stop several weeks ago - capturing the World 8-Ball Championship.
``I'm playing very well right now,'' said Morris, who has been playing pool for 10 years. ``I'm concentrating and playing smarter than ever. In situations like this, I used to tend to falter.
``Not lately.''
Morris quickly took a 5-0 lead in the match - running out two breaks and taking advantage of an unfamiliar sloppy start by Reyes.
``I've been using a new tip on my cue and I'm having trouble controlling the cue ball,'' said Reyes, 42, who won the Open in 1994. ``I'm not competing well right now.''
But Morris is.
After Reyes took advantage of a Morris miss and ran out the table in game seven, Morris returned the favor on a Reyes scratch on the break and ran out game eight. Down 6-2, Reyes again scratched on the break in game nine and could only watch as Morris again ran out for a 7-2 lead.
Then Reyes finally warmed up - taking advantage of a Morris break scratch and running out two games to cut the gap to 7-4.
But in game 12, Morris got the table back when Reyes failed to sink a ball on the break. He ran out that rack and then won a slow-starting game 13 - running out balls 2-9 after finally sinking the 1 on a great bank into the far corner for a 9-4 lead.
``I knew I was going to win this thing when I woke up this morning,'' Morris said.
Morris won game 14 for a 10-4 lead, but had to sit again while Reyes took game 15 and ran out game 16 on the break.
But again Reyes failed to drop a ball on the break and left Morris a great-looking table to run out for the winner.
Morris defeated Hall of Famer Nick Varner 11-9 in a semifinal earlier in the day, while Reyes went to the wire for an 11-10 victory over fellow Filipino Rodolfo Luat. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by LAWRENCE JACKSON/The Virginian-Pilot
``I knew I was going to win this thing when I woke up this
morning,'' Rodney Morris said of his U.S. Open 9 Ball victory at the
Pavilion.
KEYWORDS: U.S. OPEN BILLIARDS by CNB