SEOUL - The 37-year-old Greek Filippos Kasidokostas won his second PBA tournament this Sunday and took the most of all professional PBA playeers in this season with 135 million Korean won, the equivalent to 122.000 euros. The victory in the final match against Min-gu Kang (4-1), after Kasidokostas had beaten Frédéric Caudron in the semi-final, was celebrated with a jump of joy by the Greek after his winning point. Filippos seemed very emotional during the interview after the final. ''I want to thank everyone, the PBA is a dream.''
With his victory, Kasidokostas is one of 32 players who have qualified for the Final Tour, which will be played from February 25 to March 5 and in which the winner can earn the astronomical sum of 220,000 euros in the men's and 70,000 in the women's. Filippos Kasidokostas: ''I thank my mother, my family, my girlfriend and all my sponsors making it able to make this happen. The PBA has changed everything in billiards. It should be a dream for all European players, because this makes our sport professional.''
During the interview, the Greek looked back at the period three years ago when he was faced with the choice to quit because of an injury and tremors in his left hand. ''I managed to change my playing hand by working and practicing very hard. My big motivation was that I love this sport so much. I cannot enjoy my life without playing billiards. That feeling, and the wonderful start of the PBA cycle, have given me the strength to improve with the other hand and stay on top.''
The fifth and final PBA tournament of this season was crowned by Kasidokostas with a win over Min-gu Kang in the final 4-1 in sets and 15-3, 9-15, 15-0 (run 13) and 15-11. What a level the Greek showed in these five days of the tournament: a 2.000 average in almost all matches. With the knowledge that Filippos is a right-handed player who started playing left-handed due to his handicap, although it was said that he was already ambidextrous (two-handed) before.
Kasidokostas followed the Spaniard David Martinez as last year's top on the ranking in earnings: 122.000 euros, ahead of Frédéric Caudron with 115.000 and Hyun-min Seo with 97.000. The final went in favour of Filippos Kasidokostas, who won the first set 15-9, lost the second 15-13. The third and fourth sets went to the Greek who excelled in positional play and went to the climax with 15-9 and 15-0. With that, Filippos was one set away from his second big win in the PBA. The last set was a formality for the Greek: 15-11.
Semi-finals:
The first semi-final was a 100% Korean duel with Min-gu Kang against Jae-guen Kim. The match was very close, because after Kang took a 2-0 lead, he missed his first match ball in the third set. Then, Jae Guen Kim came back to 2-2 and faced a match ball in the deciding set, which he missed. In the thrilling last innings, Kang took the win 11-10. Kim Jae-guen, who was 66th on the ranking before this tournament, qualified for the Final Tour with 32 players.
In the second semi-final, Frédéric Caudron and Filippos Kasidokostas faced each other. The last confrontations between the two players were mostly in favour of the Belgian, including a 4-0 victory in the final of the 2nd tournament of this season in October. This match was much more exciting: 15-14 for the Belgian in the first set, 15-10 for the Greek and 15-8 for a 2-1 lead. Caudron came back to 2-2 by a break and 15-6, after which the set to 11 points had to decide. Kasidokostas dominated, although he missed four match points, but Caudron's misses offered him the chance to grab the win anyway.
Preliminary rounds:
The non-Koreans eliminated in the first Survival were Carlos Anguita, David Martinez, Jean-Paul de Bruijn, Birol Uymaz, Tonny Carlsen, Javier Palazón (winner of the previous tournament in January) and Kostas Papakonstantinou. The second Survival the elimination round for Pierre Soumagne, Pedro Piedrabuena, Adnan Yüksel, Dinh Nai Ngo and Jae-ho Cho.
The non-Koreans qualified for the knockout: Caudron, Zapata, Eddy Leppens, Hideaki Kobayashi, Glenn Hofman, Morales, Kasidokostas, Bulut and Ma. David Zapata lost in the 1/16th final 3-2 to IH Kim, Frédéric Caudron eliminated his compatriot Eddy Leppens 3-2, after a valid point for Leppens was refused by the referee.
Kasidokostas already showed his supremacy in that phase with best averages in three rounds. Jae Guen Kim won his match vs Savas Bulut 3-2. In the last 16, there were victories for Glenn Hofman, Filippos Kasidokostas, Frédéric Caudron, Jae-guen Kim, Min-gu Kang and Hideaki Kobayashi and a loos for Robinson Morales. In the quarterfinals, Caudron was in trouble to get rid of Korean IH Kim with a 3-2 win and two lost sets 15-14 for the Korean. Kasidokostas made an end to the victories of Glenn Hofman, who secured a place in the final round after his 62nd place on the ranking list before this tournament.
Min-gu Kang stopped Hideaki Kobayashi's rise in that round, despite a great tournament by the Japanese and Jae-guen Kim reached the last four at the expense of his fellow countryman JP Hong.
The PBA winners this season: Seong-uk Oh, Byeong-ho Kim, Frédéric Caudron, Javier Palazón, Filippos Kasidokostas.
The LPBA winners: Ye-eun Kim, Se-yeon Kim, Mi-rae Lee.
Filippos Kasidokostas finished on top of the money rankings
Filippos Kasidokostas and his last opponent Min-gu Kang