by Absolute Pool • September 4, 2023
Fedor Gorst was the eventual champion at the biannual Turning Stone Classic in Verona, New York, battling back from behind to avenge an earlier defeat at the hands of Finland’s Mika Immonen.
Gorst broke into the top ten of the world nineball rankings after recovering from 9-7 and 7-5 down in a closely-contested final against his fellow former world champion to seal a third ranking title of the season.
Immonen was in stroke throughout the weekend and evolved into the man to beat, having beaten Gorst in the hot-seat match after previous wins over defending champion Jayson Shaw and Thorsten Hohmann.
Nevertheless, it was Gorst who snapped off the $10,000 top prize to increase his growing chances of a Mosconi Cup return, with his title-winning campaign also including a hill-hill victory over Lee Van Corteza and an emphatic win over Hohmann.
Elsewhere, ranking event winner BJ Ussery and Hunter Lombardo both strengthened their hopes of a Mosconi Cup debut with strong runs, while Connecticut’s Jeremy Sossei impressed whilst finishing in fourth place.
The tournament was the beginning of a busy month when it comes to WNT ranking events in the USA, with the Raxx Open taking place from September 14-17 ahead of the Connecticut Open between September 22-23.
