Alexis Ferrer claimed his maiden World Nineball Tour ranking title at the Universal x CPBA 99 Open at the 99 Billiards Club in Hanoi, Vietnam, beating Chang Yu-Lung 13-10 in the final.
The relatively unknown Ferrer held no status in the world nineball rankings but the latest Filipino champion will immediately enter the world’s top 100, having sealed the $16,000 top prize in the Vietnamese capital.
Ferrer made his presence known in the double elimination phase, pulling off impressive wins over Marvin Asis and Anton Raga in a deciding rack, before beating Luong Duc Thien and Patric Gonzales to reach the quarter-finals.
There, the Filipino edged past teenage sensation AJ Manas 10-8 to book his place in the semi-finals, where he punished numerous uncharacteristic errors from two-time World Championship semi-finalist Wu Kun-Lin.
It was a performance beyond his years and experience in the final from Ferrer, whose safety play made things extremely difficult for the seasoned Taiwanese cueist Chang as he emerged a 13-10 winner.
Chang had beaten Zhu Xihe in the semi-finals and world number two Aloysius Yapp 10-8 in the quarter-finals in a gripping contest, having already recorded wins over the likes of Baseth Mocaibat, Fu Che-Wei and Phuong Nam Pham.
Elsewhere, Vietnamese number one Duong Quoc Hoang and Mickey Krause were both beaten in the last 32 at the hands of Dean Castronuevo and Carlo Biado respectively, with Biado ultimately losing a hill-hill thriller against China’s Xihe.
The World Nineball Tour now returns to the United Arab Emirates for the Dubai Open from July 14-17, before world number one Fedor Gorst defends his prestigious World Pool Championship title from July 21-26 in Saudi Arabia.
