MNT is always a night to look forward to and this Monday was no different as 28 of the finest London has to offer, chalked their cue tips and stroked their shafts, to halt the progress of Rod “the God” Altes’ unbeaten streak since Ram “Ramma Jamma” Gokhul’s round the world trip, courtesy of the prize money he has amassed from winning so many MNT’s.
Pre-tournament, all eyes were on the different halves of the draw. Clearly Ciprian Dandu and Martinho Correia were clear favourites in the top half, but in the bottom half, Kostiantyn Ivanov, Rod the God, Sunny “Boy” Garib, Tomasz Jedlecki, and “Dan the Destroyer” Suh were looking like favourites to get all the way to the final. A strong half of the draw indeed.
Rod roamed around the arena as the draw was made, mapping out his route to the final, such was his confidence, and he predicted that he would definitely face up to Sunny in the semis, but wasn’t quite sure about the final. “3 in a row” was the battle-cry from the local Tooting God, and the rest of the MNT entrants started to rev up their engines in anticipation of bringing the minor deity down.
First round was a fiery affair. Paul Choong, who had shown much promise in the first half of 2022, was in Tooting for the first time in 2023. He had to face up to the stern faced Muhammed “He’s the Greatest” Ali, who is well-known for his ability to match up to any of the Titans of Tooting. Bookies had Ali as the clear favourite though, but there are no mugs in Tooting, and Paul pulled out all the stops and pounced on Ali like the predator he is.
Likewise, Andrew Phan, super-quick man, a competitor who has every right to feel that he can compete with the best, could feel unfortunate to have drawn out the talk of 2023, Sunny “Boy” Garib. However, with zero reason to doubt himself, Andrew competed hard and showed that there’s every reason to be feared. No real surprise that this match went to hill-hill, but with Sunny being in superb form this year, Andrew fell at the final hurdle, sending Sunny through to the next round.
Into the second round, and whilst there were no close match-ups, all the winners started to flex their muscles as they warmed up nicely. Notably, Marius “Ladies’ Favourite” Dandu turned up. The diminutive Marius has been on a terrible run, winning only twice in the last 14 at MNT. But, given time to warm up, as demonstrated by his showing in the Wednesday League, he’s one of the most fearsome little tiger cubs you’ve ever seen. Almost flawless on a Wednesday, utterly flawed on Mondays, Marius must have forgotten which day it was, as Wednesday Marius turned up and took Dhari Alduraibi apart and was utterly merciless.
Meanwhile, Dan Jenkins faced up to “Young Gun” Kostiantyn Ivanov, who has been over at Spots and Stripes, getting some invaluable practice in. Kostya has all the potential as we know, and despite Dan’s best efforts, the Young Gun was ruthless and kissed Dan goodbye, 5-0. Meanwhile, Tom Jedlecki had already put his foot on the accelerator by sending Saman Gholami home early, and continued his momentum with a 5-0 demolition job on Ervin Demiraj.
Sadly, what was supposed to be the match of the night, between the Destroyer and God, was a non-event as God ran out easy winner, 5-1, despite the best attempts of bribery as the Destroyer tried to get God drunk before the match.
So to the quarters, and all eyes were on the Dandu brothers. Surprisingly, the two brothers last faced each other in MNT exactly a year ago today, and Cip has a 2-0 record over Marius. However, with Marius getting back towards his best, Cip has been up and down, demonstrating a distinct lack of consistency and is really not at his best right now. Bookies had Marius down as favourite, and unsurprisingly, everyone in the arena had one eye on this particular fixture. Marius and Cip traded blows, but Cip kept on making uncharacteristic mistakes that allowed Marius to grab his opportunities and ran out 5-3 winner. Marius was on a roll, and Cip avoided all contact with the press after the match as he went to get himself a kebab roll to console himself.
Elsewhere, Martinho showed off a lot of skill as always, and whilst Jim tried to wrestle control of the match away, just couldn’t do enough and Martinho ended up winning 5-3.
God, with all the confidence flowing through his veins after having ripped the Destroyer apart in the previous round, continued his efforts against Kostya. The juggernaut style of Rod just kept punishing Kostya, and squeezed him till he could squeeze no more. 5-2 to Rod and finally, Sunny faced a tough match against Tom, but Sunny really is the talk of Tooting, and a 5-2 win really set up the semi-finals very nicely indeed.
The smart money in the semis, was on Martinho to beat Marius, whilst Rod was favourite to win against Sunny. Marius hadn’t been this far for some time, and Martinho’s back was holding up, but Marius was gaining confidence and his A game is as good as anyone’s. He demonstrated much of this as he played some excellent pool against Martinho, and flew into the final, winning 5-3. A tough game for Marius, but yet again, showing that only winning 2 in the previous 14 means nothing.
The question was who was going to be the other finalist. God had already predicted that he would face Sunny, and was under no illusions of the skill that Sunny possesses. God had beaten Sunny 4-2 last week, and had pipped Sunny to the post, 7-6, in an epic battle the week before. Sunny raced into a 4-0 lead, though, and inexplicably took his foot off the pedal whilst Rod pulled himself together to claw back 3 racks. But, at 4-3, Sunny got his act together and stormed into the final, leaving Rod looking disappointed that he wasn’t able to make it 3 tournaments on the spin. Make no mistake, this isn’t the last time that these two face off against each other, and there’s much more drama to come.
So with Marius on the rise, and Sunny making his 2nd final in 3 weeks, everyone had expected this to be a close match. Perhaps even an upset was on the cards, but for some reason, Marius remembered what day it was, and suddenly reverted back to Monday Marius. In the meantime, Sunny was desperate for silverware to take home to show to his kids, and was feeling in the mood to win. 5-0 to Sunny and the final was over almost as quick as it had started.
Regardless, a much improved effort from Marius on a Monday, but in truth, it was also only a matter of time before Sunny grabbed his first MNT win, and there will surely be many more to come.
Finally, just a reminder that the UK Open is running 30th May to 4th June, and we have a few of our own who have entered and ready to beat up the likes of SVB, FSR, and other top ranked players. A few of us are already going to attend the first day, possibly the second day, to support our guys. If you want to go, please get your tickets at https://www.seetickets.com/tour/uk-open-pool-championship and we’ll all arrange to meet up on the day. Would be great to have as many of us in attendance and make some noise for the boys.