Deo Alpajora has banked the Bay Area Snooker Open, Event 5 on the 2011 United States Snooker Association (USSA) Tour, sponsored by Aramith Billiard Balls and Strachan West Of England snooker cloth, at E-1 Entertainment in San Leandro, California.

This new event on the USSA Tour played at this new excellent snooker club in the Bay Area of California, attracted many of the region's top snooker players including the former United States National Snooker Champion and winner of Event 2 on this year's Tour, Ajeya Prabhakar, who faced-off with Alpajora in final.

The final was the pair's second meeting in the event after both players were drawn in Group B, and on that occasion it was the experienced Prabhakar who came out the winner, and to also go onto top the group. Alpajora finished in the runner-up spot of Group B to advance into the quarterfinals.

Winner of Event 5 of the 2011 USSA Tour, Deo Alpajora (pictured second left) with the runner-up, Ajeya Prabhakar (pictured far left), third placed Tony Annigoni (pictured second right) and the proprietor of E-1 Entertainment, Peter Choy (pictured far right) Photo © SnookerUSA.com

On their respective routes to the final, Prabhakar played the runner-up of Group C in the quarterfinals, Fan Ru, and ran out a comfortable 3-1 victor, before then going onto claim a comprehensive 3-0 semifnal defeat of the Group A winner, Michael Suhr, who secured his last-4 berth with a 3-1 quarterfinal over the Group D runner-up, Davy Lee.

Meanwhile in the other half of the draw, Alpajora matched up against the winner of Group C in the quarterfinals, Ivan Chen, and managed to close out the tie after winning a tight contest 3-2. He then duly booked his place in the final after a 3-1 semifinal success over the former professional pool player Tony Annigoni, who had made it this far with second place in Group A, and a quarterfinal win over the Group D winner, Bob Williams.

Alpajora was looking for revenge over Prabhakar after his earlier defeat, while Prabhakar was looking to win his second title on the USSA Tour this year.

The first two frames of this best-of-seven frames final were comfortably taken by Prabhakar and it appeared that he could well race away with the final.

But Alpajora, who is a very talented left-handed player who primarily competes at pool but learnt how to play snooker back in his native Philippines, constructed a fine break of 49 to win the third frame and get himself back into the match.

Prabhakar admitted at this point his confidence then started to seep away from him, especially as his opponent then reeled off the following two frames to take a 3-2 advantage.

A run of 37 however in frame six by Prabhakar helped him get back on level terms and take the match into a deciding frame, which inevitably proved to be a tight and close affair with Alpajora securing victory on the final blue ball and to take that $1,000 first prize.

Prabhakar picked up $500 for his efforts, while Annigoni banked $250 for his third place after overcoming Suhr 3-1 in a playoff.

The USSA would like to give its thanks to all the participants of this event, and also to the proprietor of E-1 Entertainment, Peter Choy, for his support in hosting the Bay Area Snooker Open as a USSA Tour.

The USSA Tour stays in California for Event 6 to be staged at Shoreline Billiards in Mountain View over the weekend of April 30 & May 1.

For the whole 2011 USSA Tour schedule and entry details please click on the following link:
» 2011 USSA Tour details