Aloysius Yapp sealed one of the most prestigious accolades of his career, overcoming David Alcaide 13-7 to become the US International Open champion in Norfolk, Virginia.
Yapp continued his scintillating vein of form that was sparked by his run to September’s US Open semi-finals, snapping off his second World Nineball Tour title in eight days and therefore breaking into the world’s top ten on the rankings.
Both Yapp and Alcaide struggled somewhat in the final, with numerous errors noticeable between the two of them. Alcaide’s mistakes proved costly and a five-rack streak mid-match from Yapp helped him pocket the $30,000 top prize.
Beforehand, Yapp came through a closely-contested semi-final against Poland’s Wiktor Zielinski, who was a beaten finalist twelve months ago and defeated both Mario He and the impressive Vitaliy Patsura on his way to the final four.
The Singaporean had beaten Fedor Gorst for the third time in the space of eight days in the quarter-finals, having already brushed aside Lee Van Corteza in the opening round of single elimination.
Yapp battled through a tense hill-hill contest against Greece’s Dimitris Loukatos in the second round and then beat Finland’s Jani Uski, although a subsequent 10-9 defeat at the hands of Albin Ouschan meant that he needed to survive the one-loss side.
Alcaide, meanwhile, remained undefeated until the final and received $18,000 for his efforts, initially beating Brandon Shuff and Khalid Al-Ghamdi to commence his campaign prior to back-to-back 10-9 victories over Spanish amigo Jose Delgado and Roland Garcia.
His single elimination phase was more comprehensive as his second successive victory over Shane van Boening followed by 10-5 wins over Naoyuki Oi and Gerson Martinez saw his safe passage into the title decider.
Elsewhere, Lima’s Martinez emerged as the surprise package in Virginia, with the Peruvian claiming the scalps of a number of big names, including John Morra and Van Boening, on his way to the single elimination phase.
There, Martinez continued to leave his mark on the tournament, coming through a hill-hill epic against Mieszko Fortunski prior to producing a stunning three-nine combination to defeat Alex Pagulayan 10-8 and reach the semi-finals.
Defending champion Jayson Shaw was dethroned by Japan’s Oi in the last 16, with former winner Albin Ouschan departing at the same stage following a deciding rack defeat against fellow world champion Alex Pagulayan.
Ukraine’s Vitaly Patsura and Venezuela’s Jesus Atencio both scaled up their reputations, with the Ukrainian winning five matches on the one-loss side following a heart-wrenching 10-9 defeat at the hands of Van Boening in the second round.
Patsura, a former Texas Open champion, defeated the likes of Morra, Chang Jung-Lin, Roland Garcia and last year’s US Open runner-up Max Lechner during an incredible run, before enduring a 10-1 loss to Zielinski in the last 16.
Atencio, meanwhile, was equally impressive in following a 10-7 defeat to Spain’s Delgado with wins over Sullivan Clark, Al-Ghamdi and Spanish Open semi-finalist Pijus Labutis as well as Americans Donny Mills and Anthony Meglino.
Alexander Kazakis was on the receiving end of unbelievable misfortune in his defeat to Poland’s Fortunski on the one-loss side, with Fortunski miscueing at hill-hill and causing the cue ball to bounce on top of the rail.
Somehow, the cue ball stayed on the table and left Kazakis hooked, before the Greek was left snookered again following a missed bank shot from Fortunski. Kazakis was left tough but makeable shots on both occasions but came up short and threw his cue in frustration.
