Denis Grabe landed an elusive maiden World Nineball Tour major accolade as he defeated Aleksa Pecelj 13-5 to win the first Arizona Open Pool Championship at the Quechan Casino Resort in Yuma.
Grabe overcame three major champions on his way through the single elimination field to secure the $25,000 champion’s cheque, adding to his 2025 Las Vegas Open success on the Predator Pro Billiard Series.
Estonia’s greatest ever cueist brushed aside major winners Alex Kazakis, Aloysius Yapp and Mickey Krause in successive matches, before emerging through more hard-fought contests against Venezuela’s Jesus Atencio and Jefrey Roda of the Philippines.
Grabe obtained full control of the final in the early exchanges, moving into a 4–1 lead. There were early jitters nonetheless, with a costly missed nine-ball denying him a four-rack ascendancy.
Pecelj had opportunities but Grabe consistently punished mistakes. A golden break in the eighth rack and a four-nine combination in the ninth helped him establish a 7–2 lead, before two more racks took him to 9–2.
The Serbian did not give up. He took advantage of a dry break and won another rack after a tense safety exchange to reduce the deficit to 9–4. However, Grabe immediately stopped the momentum, escaping a safety on the two-ball with a well-executed jump shot before clearing the table.
From there, Grabe regained control and moved to the hill at 12–4. Pecelj won one more rack, but that was merely a consolation as a dry break in the next allowed Grabe to clean up and seal a 13–5 victory.
Despite enduring defeat in arguably the biggest match of his career, Serbia’s Pecelj pulled off two stunning comebacks to reach his maiden major WNT final.
The former US Open semi-finalist produced escapology at its finest to win nine racks in succession from 9-1 down against Albert Januarta in the quarter-finals, before a semi-final fightback from 8-4 behind to beat Shane van Boening 11-10.
Florida Open champion Van Boening’s 14-match winning streak was scuppered in the semi-finals, despite another tremendous run that witnessed him beat major winners David Alcaide, Albin Ouschan and Carlo Biado.
Former US Open semi-finalist Roda reached yet another major semi-final with an impressive last 16 win over Joshua Filler, where he compiled a four-pack, while Atencio and Januarta made back-to-back major quarter-finals following their Florida runs.
The Phoenix Open is next up on the World Nineball Tour from August 18-22, before the second-biggest tournament in the US Open Championship takes place from August 25-30 in Frisco, Texas.
