GOYANG BITMARU - The last tournament of the PBA in this season, before the final event with the best 32 players, has been won by Frédéric Caudron again. The Belgian won his third PBA tournament in a row, his fifth in total. The tournament was devalued by COVID victims, among others David Martinez, Eddy Leppens and Javier Palazon were excluded from participation. Caudron won the final against relatively unknown Korean, Im-gwon Kim, 4-3 after trailing 2-0 in sets. Caudron's average in the final was 1.685, his opponent Im-gwon Kim 1.321.
The ladies tournament was won by Jung-suk Lim, a Korean who won three tournaments in the first PBA season and then faded into the background. She now defeated Ji-min Choi 4-2 in the final with averages 0.964 and 0.818. In the semi-finals, well-known players such as Bo-mi Kim and Ga-young Kim were defeated. Other well-known players, not Koreans, like Sruong Heavy and Orie Hida, disappeared earlier from the stage in the Survival phase with 64 and 32 players.
Frédéric Caudron took full advantage of the absence of some top players and showed his supremacy in the tournament. The most exciting and wonderful match was the one in the best 16, in which Vietnamese ex-UMB player Minh Cam Ma faced the Belgian. The match went to 3-2 for Caudron after Ma had won the first two sets 15-11 and 15-2. Caudron fought back and first won 15-2 and 15-7 and in the decisive fifth set 11-3. The averages: for Caudron 1.862, for Ma 1.500.
Of the non Koreans, David Zapata was eliminated remarkably fast: in the first round. Glenn Hofman fell in the last 64, Adnan Yüksel and Kostas Papakonstantinou one round later. Also well-known players like Jae Ho Cho and Dong Koong Kang were out of the tournament before the final rounds.
Caudron won the tournament consecutively in games against Myoung-soo Ham (3-1, 1.500), Sung-won Seo (3-1, 1.595), Sam-il Seo (3-1, 1.283), Minh Cam Ma (3-2, 1.862), Byeong-chan Noh (3-0, 2.045), Jong-won Kim (4-1, 1.375) and finally Im-gwon Kim (4-3).
Frédéric Caudron with the lady's winner
Caudron extremely happy with his victory