Luat falls short of US Open title bid

Unbeaten all week, Rodolfo Luat dropped the match that mattered most in his quest for pool glory, bowing to John Schmidt, 6-11, and losing the US Open 9-ball Championship at the Chesapeake Conference Center in Chesapeake, Virginia Sunday night.

Luat, who swept his way to the finals with a fine display of pocketing, blew a 4-2 lead in the race-to-11 final then struggled the rest of the way, including a foul shot on the 14th rack which Schmidt converted into a victory for a commanding 9-5 lead.

Schmidt, who emerged the top player in the losers’ side to gain the right to challenge Luat for the top $40,000 purse, pounced on another miss by the Filipino bet on the 15th rack to reach the hill.

Although Schmidt yielded the next rack from a scratch, he still came out on top of the final safety battle to annex that 11-6 victory.

Luat settled for $15,000 runner-up prize.

"I’m so excited — this is the biggest event in America. I went to the losers’ side and was discouraged, but with each match it looked a little more doable," said Schmidt.

An early scratch by Schmidt let Luat jump to a 2-0 lead but the former managed to get back to the table to even things up. Luat won the next two racks after Schmidt missed on a jump shot but the latter prevailed in a safety battle to tie things up again at 4-all.

Two break and runs and more safeties, however, shoved gave Schmidt to a 7-4 lead that Luat failed to overcome.

Poor luck with jumps continued as Schmidt’s next attempt rolled the object ball into the open for Luat to run out, then in the next rack Luat tried a difficult jump shot of his own and made a foul shot, leaving Schmidt to run out for the 9-5 lead.

Schmidt had his game firing on all cylinders all day as he cruised through David Broxson and Gabe Owen in his first two matches to earn a shot at the crown.

Former champion Owen finished third and took home $10,000 while Broxson pocketed $5,000 for fourth.