Universal Open Ho Chi Minh: 11 Featured Players to Watch

Six days out from the Universal Open Ho Chi Minh, the tournament's official page has put names to the $63,000 World Nineball Tour Silver event at Sniper Billiards Club — and it is a Filipino-heavy cast.

World No.1 Aloysius Yapp tops the featured list, alongside world No.2 Carlo Biado and Johann Chua (No.7), who arrives fresh from winning the Roobet Philippines Open — he beat Anton Raga 11–9 in an all-Filipino final at Gateway Mall. Raga, ranked 55th, is himself among the featured names.

Featured players

• Aloysius Yapp (Singapore) — WNT No.1
• Carlo Biado (Philippines) — No.2
• Johann Chua (Philippines) — No.7, reigning Philippines Open champion
• Robbie Capito (Hong Kong) — No.11
• Bernie Regalario (Philippines) — No.17
• Olivér Szolnoki (Hungary) — No.22
• Mickey Krause (Denmark) — No.24
• Jeffrey Ignacio (Philippines) — No.44
• James Aranas (Philippines) — No.47
• Wu Kun Lin (Chinese Taipei) — No.50
• Anton Raga (Philippines) — No.55, Philippines Open runner-up

Six of the eleven are Filipino — a fair snapshot of where the tour's strength sits right now, with three of the world's top ten in the group.

Still to come: the full 128

Featured is not the same as final. Notable absentees from the list so far include top-five names Fedor Gorst, Francisco Sánchez Ruíz and Joshua Filler — and no Vietnamese player is featured yet. The size of the home contingent, including whether leading local names such as Duong Quoc Hoang take their places in the 128, stays unknown until the complete entry list is published.

The week ahead

The 128-man draw plays double elimination down to the last 64, then straight knockout to a final raced to 13 racks. The champion takes $15,000 from the $63,000 fund. Play runs 11–15 November and streams on WNT.TV — then the tour moves straight on to the Universal Bangkok Open, 17–21 November.

Follow the event on our Universal Open Ho Chi Minh hub; for a Southeast Asian angle on the field, Sports23's preview is also worth a read.