BE NOT AFRAID OF GREATNESS: THE FINAL FOUR OF THE US OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

The 2023 US Open 9-Ball Championship has ended, but it is not behind us. It still stares us right in our eyes and measures all of us: players, fans, supporters, and leaders. The US Open is about excellence, dedication, and commitment.

The US Open is the oldest active tournament and one that has held a prestigious position at both home and abroad for decades. From the humble beginnings of Barry Behrman to its acquisition by Matchroom, it has had moments of brilliance and moments of tragedy. It has excitement and drama like no other event of its time. It continues to evolve, as do we all, and I hope we all continue to be worthy of the journey it can take us on.

This event has grown to 256 players with a long waiting list. The arena has emerged as one of the finest stages for pool, both live and for media broadcast. Can it still improve? Yes, absolutely, and I’m confident that its caretakers will always seek to make it one of the best examples of pool entertainment in the world. Certainly, the talent pool has exploded over the past few years. This year alone, the names left by the wayside tell us that fact. Francisco Sanchez Ruiz, Ko Pin Yi, Albin Ouschan, Shane Van Boening, and Joshua Filler. The final four this year was one of the most interesting I have seen in quite a while, and it was one of the most exciting to watch.

This year saw it boil down to four names: Ko Ping Chung, Fedor Gorst, Aloysius Yapp, and Aleksa Pecelj. None of them were older than 28. None of them had won a US Open 9-Ball title prior to 2023. Three of them had won World Junior 9-Ball Championships, and all have won titles or had high finishes.

Ko Ping Chung is the younger brother of Ko Pin Yi. Ping Chung has won the World Junior 9-Ball Championship, a World 10-Ball title, and had two semifinal appearances at the US Open only to fall short both times. He was born in Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) and has been making big appearances for more than ten years. His brother, Ko Pin Yi, has slightly overshadowed him, and many have been waiting for him to have his breakout moment.

Aloysius Yapp is from Singapore and is also a Junior World champion and has been playing since he was a young boy. He has been playing professionally for more than 10 years and has won a gold medal at the Asian Games. He has been a runner-up at the US Open and has won the Pro Billiard Series event in Michigan twice, but he has been trying to capture that major event that will cement his position as one of the best in the world.

Aleksa Pecelj comes to us from Serbia and is a fine example of how far interest in the game has spread. And furthermore, it shows how large the talent pool is around the world. Aleksa is only 23 and has finished second at the European 10-Ball Championship and third at the European Junior 9-Ball Championship. He is also a winner of the Visoko Open. Aleksa is poised to emerge as a true young star, and winning an event like the US Open would go far in making that statement to the world.

Fedor Gorst is perhaps the biggest name among the final four. Born in Russia and now living in the United States, he is both a Junior World 9-Ball Champion and World 9-Ball Champion. He has won the US Open 8-Ball and 10Ball titles and multiple titles at the time-honored Derby City Classic. The US Open title, though, has eluded him thus far, and while he is young, you must remember that nothing is guaranteed, and there are many greats who chase titles but never capture them. Also, the previous year, through no fault of his own, Fedor was banned from playing in many major events, and 2023 has been his reemergence year, so he wants to show the world he is still a top threat to win.

Aloysius began his journey with a win over Leo Ott 9-2 and went on an undefeated run to the final four, beating Kyle Akaloo, Jeff De Luna, Wojciech Szewczyk, Marco Teutscher, Mario He, Wiktor Zielinski. Aleksa started his quest with Barry West winning 9-1, but then he stumbled and lost to Lee Kang 9-8, sending him to the B side. He recovered and went on to beat Edward Epperson, Babken Melkonyan Denis Grabe,

Imran Majid, Phuong Nam Pham, Ralf Souquet, and Jayson Shaw.

Fedor’s first match was with Sam Henderson, a strong junior making his first attempt at The Open. Fedor won 9-1 and went on to defeat Payne McBride, Nicholas De Leon, Billy Thorpe, Sanjin Pehlivanovic, Carlo Biado, and Robbie Capito. Ko made quick work of his first opponent 9-1 and seemed well poised to move through the fields, but he ran into former US Open champion Corey Deuel, and Corey sent him to the B side 9-6. Ko Ping Chung then fought his way through Jeremy Seaman, Ahmed Aldulaimi, Radislaw Babica, Alexander Kazakis, Jeff De Luna, and Max Lechner.

And then there were four. Four players, all young, all hungry, all with something to prove to the world and to themselves. The pairings were as follows: Fedor

Gorst versus Aleksa Pecelj and Ko Ping Chung versus Aloysius Yapp.

First up was Gorst and Pecelj. The first rack had Gorst looking strong and comfortable with just a small glitch getting on the eight ball to the nine, but he took the rack with no issue. Rack two, however, had Aleksa at the table looking at a long jump shot on the one ball. He drilled the shot, bringing the cue ball back up and across the table, getting into a nice little window for a shot on the two-ball. He made the rest of the rack look easy, and the match was even at one game each. Aleksa would go on to take the next four racks, looking like a seasoned veteran. Fedor finally got a look in rack seven, and he stopped the bleeding, making it 5-2. It looked like he would take rack 8, but an attempt at an early 9-ball went awry. Aleksa stepped up, but he was unable to take advantage of the former World Champion, and Fedor got a reprieve and a win to make it 5-3. Fedor also wins game nine but scratches on the break in the next rack, and Aleksa makes it 6-4. Aleksa showed a little chink in his armor and gave Fedor a chance, and we saw him take seven games in a row to head into the finals with an 11-6 victory. Don’t forget the name Aleksa Pecelj because I can assure you his future competitors will not.

The second semifinal became something rare and beautiful. It was Ko Ping Chung squaring off with Aloysius Yapp. Ko broke making the one-ball, and Yapp missed a long, difficult shot on the two. Ko stepped back to the table and took the rack apart to win the first game. Little Ko would go on to win eleven straight racks. He made a ball on the break every single game, and he made every ball in every game for a total of 99 balls. Yapp would only have a few chances to kick at balls as Ko broke and ran six of the 11 games and controlled every aspect of the match, missing only one ball in the entire set. According to some statistics that were posted, 93% of the table time was Ko Ping Chung. It is one of the most incredible performances of all time, and it was done in the semifinals of the US Open 9-Ball Championship! To paraphrase the former great amateur golfer Bobby Jones when he watched a young Jack Nicklaus win The Masters in 1965 – “You, sir, played a game with which I am not familiar!”.

We now move to as highly an anticipated final as you could have imagined. Fedor Gorst, who was trying to reestablish himself as a top player on the world stage, and Ko Ping Chung looking to show he is a major champion in his own right. Fedor, who had won seven in a row against a young rising star who was eclipsing champions and looked to be poised to be the dark horse winner of the event. Ko stepped up against the man who made the finals just two years prior to this encounter. He was a man who was looking to redeem himself and put that major win on his resume, only to see Ko Ping Chung take eleven straight racks in a match where he only had one possible offensive shot.

The final stage was set, and someone was going to emerge as a champion. Two young men who are as great off the table as they are on it. Players who represent themselves and the sport as well as anyone in the world. It was now a race to thirteen in one of the highest-pressure situations in major pool.

In rack one, we saw Ko snookered on the two-ball behind two other balls. Ko calmly jumped and pocketed the two, but he left the cue ball behind the four, unable to see the three at the other end of the table. No problem. He jumped again, pocketing the ball and getting shape of the four proceeded to run out rack one. Rack two presented us with an early safety battle that got Fedor ball-in-hand from Ko Ping Chung, and he evened things up at 1-1. A misplayed safe in game three by Ko and Fedor took the lead 2-1. Fedor missed a bank on the two-ball in the next game, and Ko came right back to make it two-all!

The fifth game started again with some fine safety play and, another great jump shot by Ko Ping Chung and a safe. Fedor was able to return the safe and take away the jump shot and any easy route to the ball. Ko managed a hit but could not get to a rail, and Fedor had ball-in-hand again. Fedor would go on to win the next three racks and take a 5-2 lead. Ko won rack eight after an uncharacteristic mistake by Gorst to cut the lead to two games. A missed cut on the three-ball let Fedor back in again, and he wins the ninth rack, and the score stood at 6-3 Gorst. In the tenth rack, Fedor played a cross-bank, possibly with a two-way shot in mind, but he left Little Ko an opening, and Ko notched that game on his side of the string. Another miss by Fedor in the next rack led to another Ko win, making it 6-5. Ko Ping Chung continued his winning streak, and at 6-6, he hit a great back-cut on the two and played a safe that led to him taking the lead for the first time since the opening rack. Ko’s play began to mirror his performance in the semi-final against Yapp as his ball pocketing, cue ball control, and defensive play. Fedor made a tremendous jump shot of his own in rack fourteen, but a miss on the four-ball in the side pocket left another win out on the table for Little Ko and a score of 8-6. Fedor’s chances became fewer and fewer after that as won two more to get to 10-6. In rack twelve, Ko rattled a six-ball on the four-inch corner pockets and left an opening for Fedor to try to climb back into the match. Leaving himself a tough cut on the seven, he makes it but has a horrible result as he sees the cue ball disappear into the side pocket, and Ko Ping Chung moves to 11 while Fedor stays at 6. Ko would give no more chances to Gorst after that and would go on to take the next two games and earn himself a place in pool history as the forty-sixth winner of the US Open 9-Ball Championship.

This tournament had everything you could possibly want. Drama, excitement, agony, and entertainment. A feel-good story. A well-deserved win that let a man put a well-deserved stamp on his career as well as a performance for the ages. Congratulations to Ko Ping Chung for a win no one will forget. Congratulations to Fedor Gorst for a great run in a very tough event. Congratulations to Aloysius Yapp and Aleksa Pecelj for journeying to a point that more than a few champions could not reach. Congratulations to Matchroom for putting on another terrific major tournament, as well as the Shane Van Boening Junior Open event, which Lazaro Martinez won. Well done, young man! And finally, congratulations to all the fans and supporters of the players and the event. You are helping to grow the sport by not only buying tickets, streams and merchandise but sharing your experiences with others and helping show the players that they are appreciated and the world that they matter. Thank you everyone!