SEOUL - The 24-year-old Korean Jung-Ju Shin, known by his two podium places at the Junior World Championships in 2015 and 2016, is the winner of the second PBA tournament hosted by the new Korean organization. In the final, Shin defeated another Korean, Keon-hwi Cho 4-1 in sets: 15-3, 15-7, 11-15, 15-13, 15-14 averaging 1.479 against 1.130 for Cho. The average has been corrected due to the double points for first rail shots to 1.312 for Shin and 0.978 for Cho.
Jung-Ju Shin was rewarded by 75,000 euros, half of which net after the pre-tax payment and the organizer. Keon-hwi Cho was rewarded by 25,700 euros, Javier Palazón and Nam-Ho Shin, the two semi-finalists, each deserved 7,500 euros gross. The quarter final losers are Filippos Kasidokostas (1st tournament winner), Jung-Wan Lim, Min-Gu Kang (1st tournament finalist) and Han-Ki Park, who received 3,750 euros gross.
Jung-Ju Shin defeated in his first Survival NS Kim, finished second in his 2nd Survival behind Frédéric Caudron and then beat SE Sung 3-2 in the knockout, Su Oh 3-1, Filippos Kasidokostas 3-1 and NH Shin in the semi-finals 3-2. Shin played 1.670 (corrected 1.507) over his 7 games.
The Spaniard Javier Palazón, who shone in a catch-up race in the quarter finals when he sped up at the end, was the best of the Europeans and recorded 1.368. Filippos Kasidokostas was eliminated in the quarters (1.417), the other Europeans were knocked-out earlier: Birol Uymaz (1.722), Frédéric Caudron (2.190), David Martinez (2,000), Adnan Yüksel (2.130), Kostas Papakonstantinou (2,050) and Allen Schröder ( 1.500), as well as Robinson Morales (1.591) and Pedro Piedrabuena (1.150) and the Vietnamese Ahn Vu Duong (1.773).
The Europeans without any win, eliminated in the first round were Eddy Leppens (1.412), Pierre Soumagne (1.286), Savas Bulut (1.211), Tonny Carlsen (1.222), Glenn Hofman (1.050) and three players below 1.00 average, Carlos Anguita (0.857), Juan David Zapata (0.609) and Jean Paul de Bruijn (0.500). These eight players returned to Europe empty-handed.
The players with a striking run were Dong-Jun Park with 21 Frédéric Caudron with 19 and Adnan Yüksel with 17 (with double scores for the first rail shots).
In the ladies tournament, Korean Jung-Suk Lim was the winner with 0.718, corrected 0.624. She defeated her compatriot Han-Sol Seo 3-0. Ji-Youn Lee and Namiko Hayashi from Japan were eliminated in the semi-finals. The winner earned 11,250 euros, the number two 3,630 euros and the semi-final losers 1,130 euros gross.