Whilst the eyes of the world are on the current US Open, there’s no disputing that the eyes of Tooting were on the regular MNT (Monday Night Tournaments) at London Snooker Tooting.  The line-up looked as strong as ever, but there was much anticipation as, after an absence of a few weeks, Tooting’s strongest player returned after a few weeks off on holidays. 

Yes, the Destroyer was back!  In the meantime, some other fella called Ramesh was back from his holidays too.  Also, a big shout out to an old crowd favourite, Doug “the Shark” Clark, who was making his first appearance since June

A strong field of 29 showed up, absolutely revved up for what was to be a big night of action.

First up, the anti-climactic Break and Run competition.  Cip pulled Paz out of the hat and poor Paz went dry.  At least that meant we could start the main competition a bit quicker! 

The early rounds demonstrated just where the MNT is right now.  Only one whitewash occurred, where newbie, Sorin Stancu came up against Cip who gently eased him out of the competition 6-0.  In the meantime, the first round saw no less than 3 match-ups go right to the wire.  Sean huffed and puffed, but a mistake at the death saw Hamza Itum take advantage.  Hassan Aljumaili brought Marius Dandu to hill-hill, but the little magician is never to be underestimated, and showed off his quality to progress to the second round.  Finally, the legendary Andy “Fast Forward” Curzon looked to be easing past Dan “the Destroyer” Suh, but somehow snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

The second round saw some a couple of tight matches where Marius was pushed all the way by Andrew Phan, but after sinking his 6^th pint, Marius tipped the balance in his favour.  After the match, Marius commented “I have to face either Ramesh or Cip in the next round, so I need another pint” as he marched to the bar to top himself up with another performance-enhancing beer.

In the meantime, Henri Linnainmaa and Suk Gohil played out a gruelling tactical battle that looked like it might never end, but the experience of Suk saw him through to the quarters.  Meanwhile, Tash has been in impressive form of late, and Kostiantyn Ivanov had few answers and lost out 5-1.

The quarters proved to be the round where the top seeds really flexed their muscles.  Gabriel shot Tej down 5-2, Marius’s 7^th pint proved to be his undoing as Ram won 5-1, whilst Suk ran out of steam against an impressive Daniel Baker.  The most eagerly anticipated battle was Rod “the God” Altes against Tash, but Rod had already gained confidence from beating the Destroyer in the previous round, and continued his fine form against Tash to win 5-2.

It's of no surprise that the semis consisted of 3 of the top 4 players in the rankings.  Interestingly, out of the players who can be considered regulars, Ram, Daniel, Rod and Gabriel make up 4 of the top 5 players in terms of win ratios.  Certainly a semi-final line-up that wouldn’t look out of place in any top amateur tournament in the UK.  Ram proved his worth by beating Gabriel 5-2, whilst Daniel had to dig in to get to the final by beating Rod 5-3.

With Ram and Daniel being the only two (regular) players with a win ratio above 80%, this was going to be a close one to call.  Ram and Daniel had faced each other twice before since the beginning of September, with Ram winning both encounters.  But Daniel was in the mood for a return to form, as he was the early frontrunner in the rankings until his enforced absence in March.  Despite a competitive match, Daniel overcame Ram 5-3 to win his first tournament since his return from injury.

Congrats to Daniel and as Ram is away for 5 weeks, the question is: who is going to close the gap on Ram during his absence?  

Finally, thanks to Andy Curzon for writing up the match reports in my absence.  Much appreciated buddy.