SEOUL - The victory felt like revenge at the same time. 33-year-old Keon-hwi Cho had never won a match against PBA champion Jae-ho Cho in four matches so far. In the final at the last regular event of this season, he hit the bull’s eye: Keon-hwi won 4-2 in sets and went to the 70,000 euros top prize. The women's tournament was again won by Ga-young Kim, who further increased her unbeaten status. Spaniard David Martinez leads this year's standings in money and ranking points with 327,500,000 Korean won, around 229,000 euros. Second is Dong Koong Kang, third the youngest player on the circuit, Korean Young-won Kim. Ga-young Kim, winner of all tournaments this year, earned 240,900,000 won, good for 168,500 euros.
Keon-hwi Cho started the final with two set victories, 15-10 and 15-11, Jae-ho Cho evened the score with 15-2 and 15-9, but the last two sets went to Keon-hwi again with 15-13 and 15-7. The tension in the final and sixth set was palpable: the match lasted 13 innings. The number of bankshots, points that count double in the PBA, was minimal: both 4 over the whole match.
The semi-finals were won by Jae-ho Cho against David Zapata 4-3 (1,821/1,897) and by Keon-hwi Cho against Dong Koong Kang 4-3 (2,026/2,158). In the quarter-finals, Sung-won Choi, Joo-sun Park, Javier Palazón and Savas Bulut were defeated for a place among the top four. Burak Hashas was eliminated by David Zapata earlier in the tournament, Palazón won vs young Young-won Kim and Dong Koong Kang eliminated Antonio Montes. Keon-hwi Cho won the same Welcome Savings Bank PBA championship exactly one year ago.
Also in the men's top ten highest earners are Dany Sánchez (4th), David Zapata (6th), Murat Naci Coklu (7) and Jae-ho Cho (9). The top 32 players qualify for the PBA World Championship to be played in early March. Javier Palazón, Yusuke Mori, Lütfi Cenet, Burak Hashas, Sung-won Choi, Semih Sayginer, Eddy Leppens and Choong-bok Lee are also in the top 20 of the rankings.
The World championship is the conclusion of the season with a top prize of 220,000 euros.
The ranking leaders in recent seasons were David Martinez in 2019/2020, David Zapata in 20/21, Zapata in 21/22, Jae-ho Cho in 22/23, Jae-ho Cho in 23/24 and now, without the World Cup, David Martinez ahead of Dong Koong Kang and Jae-ho Cho.
Ga-young Kim beat Min-a Kim 4-2 in the women's final after a 2-hour-40-minute battle. The averages were 1.261 and 1.178 with a 35 seconds time clock. Ga-young Kim has now won six PBA tournaments in a row and recorded her 36th consecutive match win in the final.
The money ranking over the season so far:
1 David Martinez 327,500,000 won
2 Dong Koong Kang 286,500
3 Young-won Kim 153,500
4 Dani Sánchez 112,500
5 Keon-hwi Cho 109,500
6 David Zapata 50,500
7 Murat Naci Coklu 46,500
7 Sang-pil Eom 46,500
9 Jae-ho Cho 44,500
10 Tae-jun Oh 42,500
11 Javier Palazón 25.00
12 Yusuke Mori 23.000
13 Lütfi Cenet 22,500
14 Phuong Linh Nguyen 20,500
15 Burak Hashas 19,500
16 Sung-won Choi 18,500
17 Semih Sayginer 17,500
17 Eddy Leppens 17,500
19 Choong-bok Lee 16.500
20 Min-gu Kang 16,000
20 Minh Cam Ma 16,000
20 Antonio Montes 16,000
27 Jae-guen Kim 13,000
27 Nguyen Quoc Nguyen 13,000
39 Savas Bulut 9,000
54 Robinson Morales 6,000
Adnan Yüksel (64), Ivan Mayor (64), Filippos Kasidkokstas (68), Duc Anh Chien Nguyen (97) are not among the best 60 and play against relegation.
Keon-hwi Cho, his second win in PBA
Ga-young Kim, the lady's multi winner