Joshua Filler has been crowned the Derby City Classic champion for the first time in his career following a thrilling 9-8 victory over Pijus Labutis in Sunday morning’s final at the Caesars Southern Indiana casino.
Both Filler and Labutis were relentlessly competing for more than 24 hours on an arduous final day of the four-day World Nineball Tour event, with the German sealing his first ranking title in almost 18 months.
Lithuania’s Labutis was comfortably beaten by Filler 9-5 in the penultimate round but he utilised his buyback option at 9.30am, reeling off seven racks from 7-1 behind in a contest that was ultimately decided by one all-important rack.
A scratch on the two ball from Labutis allowed his opponent to force that deciding rack, although it was a crucial missed five ball at hill-hill that the Lithuanian number one will be left to rue for some time.
Labutis was seemingly in cruise control, only to miss position and therefore strike the five ball too thick. Perhaps fatigue and exhaustion were decisive factors for him as he handed the world number six the title on a silver platter.
More to follow…
