Aloysius Yapp restores belief by retaining International Open pool title

SINGAPORE – After months of struggling with self-doubt, Singapore’s top pool player Aloysius Yapp finally won an individual event on the World Nineball Tour (WNT) on Nov 22, when he beat German Moritz Neuhausen 13-6 in the International 9-Ball Open final.

With a new cue in hand, the 28-year-old pocketed US$40,000 (S$53,900) after retaining his title and plans to celebrate with a nice steak lunch. He told The Sunday Times: “It’s been a while since I last made it so far at a big tournament. To win, it is really helpful for my confidence and WNT ranking.”

Yapp, 12th on the WNT, was unbeaten throughout the star-studded US$171,000 event which featured eight of the 11 players ranked higher than him at the Renaissance Resort in Florida. He is expected to return to the top 10 with this victory.

In the first stage of the double-elimination tournament, he beat unranked Americans Michael Yednak (10-2) and Corey Deuel (10-7), edged out 35th-ranked Bosnian Sanjin Pehlivanovic (10-9), and overcame 10th-ranked Pole Wiktor Zielinski (10-8) to reach the last-16 second stage.

By this time, only five of the top-10 players remained, but none were as consistent as Yapp. He beat 69th-ranked Albanian Kledio Kaci (10-8) and 60th-ranked Bulgarian Georgi Georgiev (10-6). In the Nov 22 semi-final against 25th-ranked Dutchman Niels Feijen, he was trailing 6-7 but potted well to take the next four racks and win 10-7.

In a scrappy final, both players struggled as Yapp could not control the cue ball as well as he would have liked and found himself self-snookered on several occasions. However, 15th-ranked Neuhausen was let down by numerous dry breaks and saw a 3-2 lead turn into a 3-8 deficit as the Singaporean capitalised to seal victory.

Yapp, who switched to Universal Cues two weeks ago, said: “We are playing with a new cue ball which reacts differently when it contacts the object ball. Sometimes it feels so heavy, sometimes it runs more.

“This is also only my third tournament with my new cue. It hits good and I really like it but, as it plays differently from my old cue, I need time to adjust and build my stroke around it. For example, when I play spin on the cue ball, it reacts differently. Spin is a very vital part of the game, so we need to understand our equipment to play good pool.”

The win also gives Yapp relief and a timely confidence boost towards the end of the season. He won a regional tournament in Batam in July and was the Most Valuable Player in Team Asia’s 11-6 victory over Team Europe in the inaugural Reyes Cup in October.

Admitting that he had struggled for months, he added: “When you start doubting yourself a little, everything feels harder. I played a couple of events and felt really strong, but I got unlucky, lost a couple, and started doubting myself.

“I felt I needed to play perfect to win, and sometimes perfect is not even enough. It’s a real struggle and a very painful experience. For sure, I do feel a lot more relaxed now.”

Yapp will hope to take this renewed belief into the Nov 23-24 International 10-Ball Invitational before more tournaments in the Philippines, Taiwan and China to round up the year.

Meanwhile, fellow Singaporean Nicholas Tan also had a memorable outing in the United States.

The 22-year-old stunned Germany’s former world champion and 42nd-ranked Ralf Souquet (10-9) and beat Italy’s 64th-ranked Francesco Candela (10-5) in the first stage, before he was eliminated after losses to Germany’s eighth-ranked Joshua Filler (5-10) and American Tommy Tokoph (9-10).

Cuesports Singapore president Christopher Chuah said: “Aloysius has once again done Singapore proud by winning this tournament back-to-back in a field of high-quality opponents. His success is also inspiring our younger athletes such as Nicholas, who has been growing from strength to strength in recent regional events and is undoubtedly a name to watch in the near future.”