Singaporean pool player Aloysius Yapp becomes world number one

Pool player Aloysius Yapp made history after becoming the first Singaporean to top the world rankings in cue-sport. 

The 25-year-old, who is currently in Virginia, United States, competing in the International 9-ball Open and 10-ball invitational that concludes on Oct 30, is ahead of Spain’ s David Alcaide by 342.5 points. 

Aloysius picked up his first cue when he was eight after seeing the sport on television. His love for the sport was so immense that his parents even got him a miniature pool table for his 10th birthday. 

He dropped out of secondary school at 14 to train full-time, and that bold decision to pursue resulted in him becoming Singapore’s first professional pool player.  

At 18, he won the 2014 World Junior 9-Ball Championships, three months after claiming the Asian Junior title, which set him up to turn pro. He also won a SEA Games 9-ball doubles gold with Toh Lian Han in 2017 before enlisting for national service.

Aloysius has been based in the States since Aug 19 and two gruelling months of high-level overseas training and competition has seen him jump from world no. 20 to the apex. 

In September, he finished third at the World 10-ball Championship in Las Vegas, and then second at the US Open 9-ball Championship in Atlantic City. Along the way, he beat the world’s top three players, who were then three-time national 8-ball champion Van Boening, German Joshua Filler and Scotsman Jayson Shaw respectively.

On Sep 25, Aloysius won the Michigan Open for his inaugural senior international-level title after his 2017 Golden Break 9 Ball Open Championship triumph in Malaysia.

His achievements were celebrated by the Cuesports Singapore in a Facebook post. The association wrote: “We are proud of him. He is reaping the rewards for years of dedication and hard work.”