Atlantic City, New Jersey —

After struggling to keep up with Europe for more than a decade, Team USA’s pool team acquired an unlikely star: Russian world champion Fedor Gorst.

Gorst, 25, is the No. 1 ranked pool player in the world and has quickly racked up some of the game’s biggest titles, including two 9-ball world championships and the US Open .

“I knew that I would take heat from a lot of friends back home and my country where I was born,” Gorst told CNN Sports in an interview at the US Open Pool Championship in Atlantic City, where he was trying to repeat as champion at one of the sport’s biggest annual events.

“But I also felt it was natural for me to make that decision because I did have a lot of friends in the United States, and everybody was already treating me like one o

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