Aloysius Yapp landed his maiden World Nineball Tour ranking title following a 13-10 victory over Fedor Gorst to win the inaugural Battle of the Bull tournament at Wolf’s Den Billiards in Roanoke, Virginia.
Two of this year’s US Open Pool Championship semi-finalists contested the title decider, with Singapore’s Yapp, a former runner-up at that tournament, snapping off an elusive WNT success.
It was a scrappy final during which scores were level at both five apiece and ten apiece, although Yapp held it together best, limited his errors better and eventually emerged victorious to pocket the $16,000 top prize.
Following his title-winning campaign in Virginia, Yapp breaks into the top 16 on the world nineball rankings for the first time and strengthens his chances of qualifying for next year’s World Pool Masters.
Yapp went unbeaten throughout the tournament, initially defeating Dalton Walters, Raymond Linares and Nicholas De Leon to qualify for single elimination, before beating Roberto Gomez in the last 16.
The Singaporean subsequently saw off two of the American Mosconi Cup team in Skyler Woodward and Shane van Boening to reach the final, putting together a complete performance to overcome the latter 9-4.
Gorst, meanwhile, had a significantly easier draw in reaching the final, dropping only eight racks in single elimination in beating Filipinos Mark Estiola and Roland Garcia as well as soon-to-be Mosconi Cup teammate Tyler Styer.
A winner of four ranking titles this year, Gorst had overcome his girlfriend Kristina Tkach in the double elimination phase, with Tkach exiting the tournament following a loss against Josh Roberts on the one-loss side.
