Corey Deuel might not have envisaged much from his latest US Open Pool Championship campaign but he pulled off one of the shocks of the tournament in overcoming ninth seed Ko Ping-Chung.
Deuel, who defeated Mika Immonen to become the US Open champion in 2001, rolled back the years with a 9-6 victory over last year’s semi-finalist following his first round win over Eric Roberts.
The 2006 Mosconi Cup MVP was locked at four apiece against the Taiwanese sensation, although he soon capitalised on a couple of mistakes and broke and ran on one occasion to open up a 7-4 advantage.
Ko rarely capitulates and did battle back somewhat but ultimately missed a relatively routine seven ball at 8-6 behind, leaving Deuel with a prime opportunity to close out a phenomenal win.
“Well I’ve hardly played this year and I’m just happy to be here. It’s the US Open. I’ve played here for 30 years. I’m not going to expect a whole lot but I do feel like I’m playing ok,” Deuel told Window’s Open.
“He’s such a good player to his credit and it’s so difficult to come halfway around the world to play in these things, I’m sure he’s jet-lagged a little bit. When I go overseas, it takes me a couple of matches to be 100 percent.
“I was like ‘here they go, they’re going to throw me up on the TV table and I haven’t been playing and I’m probably going to be nervous’, but I really wasn’t that nervous because my expectations were pretty low.
“I didn’t expect a lot out of the match because I haven’t been playing much this year. I didn’t go to any of the ranking events, I just basically took the summer off and been taking my dog out.
“I’m going to be rocky at the beginning but if I play a little bit, I’ve beaten Shane [van Boening] this year and Fedor Gorst and I’ve only played three tournaments. If I get feeling good, I’m not afraid of people.”
Deuel now advances to the winners’ qualification round on Wednesday in Atlantic City, with the 2001 champion facing Omar Al-Shaheen for a place in the single elimination phase.
