SEOUL - Two Spanish boys, both professional billiard players from Murcia, aged 32 and 33, captured the hearts of the billiard audience this week. David Martinez (33) won the High Resort PBA tour this Monday, the penultimate of this season, by beating his Spanish friend and colleague Juan David Zapata 4-1 in set score in the final. Afterwards, 32-year-old Zapata took the winner's microphone and asked his girlfriend Camila to marry him.
In the stands of the PBA arena in Seoul, Ana Cristina (David Martinez’ wife) shed tears of happiness after the victory and Camila (of Juan David Zapata) cried tears of emotion. The Spanish billiards players were beautifully in the spotlights. For David Martinez, it was already his seventh PBA win in total, his third this year. Juan David Zapata was the 2021 PBA ‘world champion’, his biggest triumph to date.
Martinez and Zapata will travel back to Spain with their ladies around midnight today (Korean time) for a stay of some 40 days around Christmas and New Year. ‘’It's good to be back with family and friends,‘’ assures David Martinez, who lives with Ana Cristina in Murcia and will see his proud mother Merche again, among others. Juan David Zapata also lives with his future wife in Murcia. ‘’I am happy to be back after so long (from September) in Korea,‘’ Zapata said last night.
David Martinez: ’’My victory this time was special because my wife Ana Cristina has been here for a month. We could celebrate together now. Last time, my mother and other family were in Korea, when I made it to the semi-finals. These are nice moments to share together.‘’ David Martinez has earned roughly 911 million won is 638,000 euros in his career so far, leading ahead of Jae ho Cho with 832 million won and Juan David Zapata with 777.
With three wins in one season, this is the most successful year for Martinez. ’’In my first year in PBA, I was also No 1 in the rankings, but we couldn't play the world championship because of Covid. I'm looking forward to that now.‘’
Martinez and Zapata played against each other four times in the PBA so far. The score between them is 2-2 after David’s win in this final. Juan David Zapata (once PBA world champion, once Tour winner, once team league winner) says about the final against Martinez: ‘’I didn't play my best billiards and couldn't capitalize on my chances. In the first, David made a lucky shot and finished by 9. I had chances in the second and third set, but missed a few important positions. Still, I am satisfied with the result in a year when things have been a bit down for me. I am now seventh in the rankings and have qualified for the world championships in March.‘’
The set scores in the final were:
Martinez-Zapata 15-4, 15-11, 15-12, 10-15, 15-7, averages 1.842/1.361.
David Martinez won the semi-final against Hyun-woo Kim 4-3 (1.571/1.114), Juan David Zapata won againstYoung-won Kim 4-1 (1.408/1.128).
Eddy Leppens made it to the top eight, in which the Belgian lost to David Martinez 3-1 (2,889/1,558). Dani Sánchez, Murat Naci Coklu, Semih Sayginer, Duc Anh Chien Nguyen, Dong Koong Kang, Jun Ju Shin, Burak Hashas, Lütfi Cenet were eliminated on dooms day at the last 64.
The women's tournament yielded a win for the fifth consecutive time for Ga-young Kim, the absolute queen of the PBA in the women's event gaining 30 matches in a row now. She defeated Bo-mi Kim in the final 4-2. In the previous round, Mi-rae Lee went on the rack against Ga-young Kim, a former pool player who is unbeatable at the LPBA this year.
David Martinez is by far the most successful player this year in the PBA. He leads the rankings with 326 million Korean won in earnings this year. Second is Dong Koong Kang with 276, Young-won Kim (17) is third with 151 million, Dani Sánchez is fourth with 111, followed by Murat Naci Coklu with 45, Sang-pil Eom with 45, David Zapata with 40, Tae-jun Oh with 40, Yusuke Mori with 21 and Lütfi Cenet with 21. Also in the top 20 are Javier Palazon (11th), Burak Hashas (13), Eddy Leppens (14) and Semih Sayginer (15).
The next tournament is from 22 to 30 January.
Juan David Zapata asked his girlfriend to marry
David Martinez in Seoul with his mother Merche (middle) and sister Ana
Juan David Zapata and his girlfriend Camila