Cue sports: Dream run ends as Aloysius Yapp finishes runner-up in US Open 9-Ball C’ship

SINGAPORE – The Republic’s top pool player Aloysius Yapp must wait longer for his first senior major title after he lost 13-8 to Carlo Biado in the final of the US Open 9-Ball Championship in Atlantic City on Saturday (Sept 18).

Yapp, 25, had led 8-3 but missed a shot on the 9-ball in the 12th rack which allowed Biado back to the table. The Filipino proved to be in fine fettle and won 10 racks in a row in the race-to-13, winner-break format of the final.

Biado, the 2017 World 9-Ball champion, becomes only the second Filipino to win the prestigious US Open title, after Efren Reyes in 1994.

The 37-year-old claimed the green jacket and top prize money of US$50,000 (S$67,415) while Yapp won US$25,000 as runner-up, which is the best performance by a Singaporean in the competition which began in 1976.

Post-match, Yapp said: “I am lost for words.

“I feel grateful to be in the final and all the fans have been awesome so thank you. I know I can do it. I am coming back stronger next year.”

Yapp, the 2014 Junior World 9-Ball champion, had entered the final on a superb run of form which had seen him beat the world’s top two players – record five-time US Open champion and top-ranked Shane van Boening of the United States in the last 16, and world No. 2 Joshua Filler of Germany in the third round.

A week prior, he had also beaten world No.3 Jayson Shaw of Scotland in the World 10-Ball Pool Championship in Las Vegas en route to a third-place finish, which earned him US$12,000 and bumped him up to eighth in the world ranking.

Cuesports Singapore president Justin Lee said: “While the final didn’t turn out as we had hoped, we are proud of Aloysius’ unprecedented runner’s-up finish in the US Open.

“Aloysius gives us confidence that cuesports athletes from Singapore can succeed at the highest level.”

Lee also said that the association will continue to support athletes “to help them develop, improve and achieve their goals” and added: “We are sure that this is just the beginning for Aloysius in the international arena.”