2005 – a moment that billiards enthusiasts still recall with excitement – where the US Open Nine-Ball Championship became the stage for Efren “Bata” Reyes, the living legend of world billiards, to once again silence the audience and astonish the experts. The match between Reyes and the reigning champion Gabe Owen was not simply a sports competition – but a testament to the existence of miracles in the world of billiards.
From the moment the opening bell rang, the atmosphere in the auditorium became as tense as a string. Gabe Owen, with his peak form and the title of reigning US Open champion, entered the match with great confidence. He was an emerging symbol of American billiards – young, strong and tactically intelligent. Everyone believed that if anyone could “decode” Efren Reyes – it would be Gabe Owen.
However... they were wrong.
From the very first shots, Efren Reyes silenced the audience and his opponents. His safety shots were not only precise but also extremely cunning – putting Gabe Owen in situations with almost no way out. It felt like each move Reyes made was a pre-programmed program, and the ball rolled exactly as the player wished with absolute precision.
One of the moments that made the audience explode was when Gabe Owen made a small mistake in a clearing shot – leaving a seemingly harmless gap. But Reyes, with the eye of a master, saw an opportunity that no one else saw. He executed a spectacular kick shot – the cue ball touched the ice, slipped through the extremely narrow gap, then hit the object ball and pocketed it perfectly. The audience was in an uproar. The camera panned to Owen’s face – his eyes were wide, full of surprise and seemed to ask: “How did he see that?”
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The world seemed to stop every time Reyes took the cue. His shots weren’t always powerful, but there was a softness to them that was almost magical and calculated. In another situation, when Gabe had an extremely complicated shot – there was hardly an easy run – Reyes stepped forward, bent down, and in one breath, he cleared the shot with a perfect massé shot that made the entire audience go “Oh!” in disbelief.
Gabe Owen played well. He was still a world-class player, keeping his composure, making good counters, and showing the spirit of a champion. But he encountered something beyond reason – the “Reyes magic”. An opponent who played billiards not only with skill, but with psychology, with art, and sometimes with… the unthinkable.
The biggest difference was in cue ball control. Reyes seemed to have an invisible string attached to the cue ball, making it move every centimeter as he wanted. After each shot, the cue ball not only stopped at the next favorable position, but even made the camera “lose patience” because it had to rotate in seemingly impossible angles.
The match gradually entered the final rounds, and Reyes increasingly proved why he was called “The Magician”. Gabe Owen seemed to no longer maintain his initial coldness. Every time Reyes made a magical shot, Gabe’s eyes showed doubt, then shock. Not because he played badly, but because… his opponent was too extraordinary. There were shots that made Gabe only laugh helplessly and shake his head. Because when the person opposite is no longer a player, but an artist – you cannot use reasoning to protest, you can only… sit and watch and learn.
And then, the final shot came – a silky smooth shot, perfectly timed – and Reyes ended the match to a thunderous ovation from the entire stadium. Gabe stood up and shook his hand with a look of genuine admiration – a wordless acknowledgement that: “I was beaten by a legend.”
That match was not just a victory, but a living lesson in the art of sports. With talent and composure, Efren Reyes turned a match into a high-level drama – where he was the director, the main actor, and the one who made the audience fall into a state of ecstasy.
The 2005 US Open, over the years, there may be many new champions, many other classic matches… but the match between Reyes and Gabe Owen will always be engraved as a magical milestone, when people saw not just billiards – but magic.
