Johann Chua overcame world number one Fedor Gorst in a captivating final at the Knight Shot Dubai Open in the United Arab Emirates to win his fourth ranking title on the World Nineball Tour.
In ideal preparation for next week’s World Pool Championship in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, world number five Chua trousered the $15,000 top prize in scorching conditions to taste success on tour for the first time this year.
Chua and Gorst were neck and neck in a sharply-contested finale during the early exchanges. Neither player could string together any racks, and the match involved some fascinating safety battles, with scores level at six apiece.
Nevertheless, it was the reigning Hanoi Open champion who found an extra gear, putting together three successive break and runs in a timely manner as he won seven consecutive racks to emerge as a 13-6 victor.
Beforehand, Chua had beaten a rather unfortunate David Alcaide in the semi-finals, with Spain’s Alcaide notably missing three nine balls during the tie, having already beaten the likes of Jonas Souto Comino, Elliott Sanderson and Jeffrey Prieto.
Gorst, meanwhile, beat Denmark’s Mickey Krause 11-6 in the last four following prior wins over Francisco Sanchez Ruiz and Niels Feijen, while the reigning world champion also battled past Jan van Lierop in a hill-hill thriller in the third round.
UK Open runner-up Souto Comino was unable to add to his WNT ranking title tally, enduring a narrow 11-10 defeat in the quarter-finals to Krause, while Premier League winner Neuhausen was beaten by Alcaide.
German world champions Ralf Souquet and Thorsten Hohmann were defeated in the fourth round on the one-loss side to Jeffrey Ignacio and AJ Manas respectively.
