SEOUL – The first PBA and LPBA event in the new season is moving up to the finals and will crown the first winners in the coming days. The women's tournament is already heading for the final, with Ga-young Kim chasing her 15th title in total and eighth in a row. The Korean former pool player is unbeaten in eight tournaments in a row and is rightly called the “Queen of LPBA”. She now faces You-ram Cha in the final, the player who eliminated well-known Korean Shin-young Lee, the world champion in the UMB two years ago, with a maximum score of 3-0 in the semi-final.
Other well-known players were eliminated in previous rounds of the Woori Financial tournament. Ga-young Kim started her mission with a difficult win: Kim beat Orie Hida, one of the most famous UMB players in history, on penalties. Sruong Pheavy is also out of contention for a podium place, as is Vietnam's Hoat Yen-ni Nguyen, who reached the women's World Championship podium in Blois last year and then switched to the LPBA.
The men's tournament also saw some sensational eliminations. The European players still in contention in the last 16 are Juan David Zapata, Murat Naci Coklu and Dani Sánchez, while the Koreans include Sung Won Choi and Jae Guen Kim and the Vietnamese Duc Anh Chien Nguyen and Minh cam Ma.
Semih Sayginer was eliminated in the very first round, losing 3-0 to Gil-su Lee, a relatively unknown player who averaged 2,143. Javier Palazón and Yvan Mayor also failed to survive the first round.
David Martinez, last season's PBA number 1, who scored an excellent win against Robinson Morales in the round of 64, was eliminated from the tournament by Ma in the round of 32. Eddy Leppens lost 3-0 to JH Sun, Adnan Yüksel lost 3-2 to Sung Won Choi.
Montes, Bulut, Mori, Hashas and Dong Koong Kang did not make it through the round of 64.
The other final ladies player, You-ram Cha