GOYANG - Spanish toreador David Martinez won his 4th PBA tournament in a final against young Japanese Yusuke Mori. The final matches of this season's fourth event ended in thrillers: 4-3 in both semi-finals, 4-3 in the final. Once again, no Korean managed to win a PBA event this season: the first three were won by Sayginer, Caudron and Palazón. David Martinez becomes number 3 in the PBA's prize standings from the start. Caudron, now retired from PBA, still leads with 740,000, Juan David Zapata is second with 490,000, David Martinez third with 420,000. The first Korean is Jae-ho Cho with 380,000 euros. The amounts are calculated only on the prizes in the individual tournaments. Prize money from the team league and PBA contracts is not included.
The Spanish winner of the fourth tournament first survived the semi-final against Tae-jun Oh 4-3 and a deciding set 11-9. The averages in those semis: Martinez 1.950, Tae-jun Oh 1.925. In the other semi-final, Yusuke Mori also won 4-3 over Ki-ho Park after striking in the last three sets 15-14, 15-4 and 11-9 (averages 1.293 for Mori, 1.362 for Park).
The final also thrilled the spectators. Mori won the first set 15-8, then Martinez won 15-3 and 15-8, Mori came back 15-9 and 15-9 and led 3-2. The last two sets went to Martinez, who triumphed 15-12 and 11-0 (run 7). The Spaniard has become a real finals player in the PBA. He won four of the five finals he has played in the PBA. Yusuke Mori came this far in a PBA event for the first time: in the semifinals, he won his match against Ki-ho Park in the seventh set by a lucky point.
Yusuke Mori beat Nguyen Quoc Nguyen 3-2 in the quarter-finals, Martinez got the better of Korean favorite Jae-ho Cho 3-0. Ki-ho Park and Tae-jun Oh were the other winners in those quarter-finals against Chang-sun Yu and Jae geun Kim. By 3-1 and 3-0.
Of the Europeans, Javier Palazón, Savas Bulut and David Zapata were eliminated in the last 16 by Tae-jun Oh, Chang-sun Yo and Jae geun Kim. In the round before, Eddy Leppens, Can Capak and Yvan Mayor lost their matches. Two European cracks, Dani Sánchez and Semih Sayginer disappeared from the tournament in the first qualifiers.
It is notable that in both the men's and women's finals, a Japanese player and player played for the top prize. Yusuke Mori became the runner-up in the men's, Ayako Sakai in the women's.
Yvan Mayor (Spain) won the prize for the best game of 3,000 euros (2,813 in the round with 128).
The next round of the PBA team league starts on September 14.
David Martinez in focus after his final win
David Martinez shows four fingers for his four PBA wins
Young Japanese Yusuke Mori, for the first time in a PBA final