GYEONG-JU-SI - David Zapata's miraculous winning race came to an unexpected end in a mysterious Korean night. The 41-year-old Korean giant Dong Koong Kang became the winner of the first PBA tournament in this new season after a fantastic come-back. The victory was snatched from the jaws of defeat, as Dong Koong Kang was facing a 3-0 deficit after three sets. He won the match after four sets in a row with a stunning 4-3 score. With that, Kang took revenge for the lost PBA final at the end of last season, in which David Zapata won the super bonus of 220.000 euros.
When entering the Korean night, David Zapata had a superior 3-0 lead on the scoreboard. The new Spanish star, who is making gold in the PBA league, seemed to be on his way to a new comfortable victory, but went down in the tension of the final sets. Dong-Koong Kang first fought back to 3-1, then to 3-2, equalized and grabbed the top prize at 3-3, which was good for the PBA trophy and 73.000 euros. Rarely has the final of a major tournament been so scintillating and sizzling.
The apotheosis came at the end of a match with two faces. David Zapata had a flawless start with sovereign set scores of 15-3 (closing run of 9 in the fourth turn), 15-10 in the second set and 15-14 in a turbulent final part of the third set. The knockout seemed a formality, but what a sensational turn the match took on that 3-0 score.
First the score ran to 3-1 after a comfortable score (15-2), Zapata trailed 13-7 in the fifth set with a run of 7 at 14-13, but missed the match ball, a Bankshot. The Spaniard left a favorable position, after which Kang could grab victory with two points: 15-14 and 3-2 for Zapata in sets. The sixth set was a thriller again: Zapata took a 9-6 lead with two bankshots in a row, ran out to 13-6 and missed another match ball: the bankshot for 15-6. He missed, it was 13-8 in the next inning and then Kang made seven: 15-13 and 3-3 in sets.
In the next set, it started with Zapata's advantage again, but after a 5-1 lead, Kang came back to 5-5, Zapata immediately ran out to 9-5, but in the crucial last part Kang kept his nerves in control and finished with a wonderful six run for the final victory. How well matched the players were, was shown by the score: both made 81 points and finished with 1,804 on average.
Dong-Koong Kang reached the final thanks to victories over Dong-hyun Kim (2-0), Gyeong-seop Jung (2-1), Ik-joong Kwong (3-1), Birol Uymaz (3-1), Jon-won Kim (3-0) and Hyun-min Seo (3-1). David Zapata reached the final of this tournament with victories over Young-hoon Kim (2-0), Duc Minh Tran (2-0), Keon-hwi Cho (3-1), San-dae Lee (3-1), Jae-ho Cho (3-2) and David Martinez (3-1). Zapata played his best match in the last 32 with a 3,000 average.
Dong-Koong Kang, the 41-year-old winner, won the 2013 World Cup in Guri in the final against Dani Sánchez in his UMB years and was the first winner at the LG U+ Cup, a lucrative tournament in Korea where he beat Dick Jaspers in the final.
David Zapata (Juan David Zapata Garcia in full) is 28 and became best known in the UMB ranks for his victory at the European Junior Championships in Alcamo, Italy (2012) in the final against Omer Karakurt. Zapata was also on the podium at the World Junior Championships in Guatemala in 2011, where HaengJik Kim took the title. The undisputed highlight of his young career was his victory in this year's PBA final, in which he beat Dong-Koong Kang to earn 220,000 euros, the highest amount ever in history for a carom player.
The prize schedule for the top eight and the non-Koreans in the top 32 in this PBA event:
1 Dong-Koong Kang, 100 million Korean won, 73,000 euros
2 David Zapata, 34 million, 24,000 euros
3 David Martinez and Hyun-min Seo: 10 million won, 7300 euros
5/8 Jae-ho Cho, Eddy Leppens, Minh Cam Ma, Jong-won Kim, 2.5 million won, 3700 euros
9/16 Birol Uymaz, Min-gu Kang 1850 euro
17-32: Glenn Hofman, Javier Palazón, 1100 euro.
32-64: Duc Minh Tran, Sam-il Seo, Jae-guen Kim, Savas Bulut, Adnan Yüksel 0 euros
65-128: Hideaki Kobayashi, Sang-pill Eom, Gong-chul Kim, Jung-ju Shin, Robinson Morales, Jin-pyo Hong, Hyung-bum Hwang 0 euros.
The next two events of the PBA league are two team events: the first from 6-12 July, the second from 14-20 July.
Dong Koong Kang (left), te winner, after 3-0 down and a 4-3 victory over David Zapata
Dong Koong Kang; revenge for the PBA loss in the end of last season
Dong Koong Kang celebrates the victory