3-Cushion
SEOUL – Turkish player Murat Naci Coklu and Korean Dong Koong Kang will come up for the PBA final in the Crown Haitai Championship, today (Wednesday). The final match is at 13.00 West European time (14.00 in Turkey). This morning, in the semi-finals, Coklu beat Vietnamese Minh Cam Ma 4-3, Dong Koong Kang was 4-0 stronger than Semih Sayginer.
The ladies tournament showed the 9th win for PBA queen Ga-young Kim, who beat young Ji-eun Han 4-3. Ga-young Kim has become the absolute champion of the PBA. Her 9th win, out of a total of 14 finals, is a record. Ji-eun Han played her first final. That ‘golden match’ was thrilling until the end: Ji-eun Han first won 11-10, then two sets went to Kim 11-4, 11-7, the next two were again for Han 11-6, 11-6 and finally Ga-young Kim struck again inexorably: 11-10 and 9-7 in the decisive fifth set in 11 innings.
Murat Naci Coklu was winner of an exhilarating match against Minh Cam Ma to reach the final. The Turk, who has won one PBA tournament so far, averaged 2.417 against Ma 2.000, the score in caroms was 87-70. The set scores Coklu-Ma: 15-5, 7-15, 15-6, 15-13, 11-15, 13-15, 11-1 (3 innings). The other final went to Dong Koong Kang with the maximum score, who beat Semih Sayginer 4-0: 15-12, 15-6, 15-11, 15-14, averages 2,143/1,654.
In the quarter-finals, Coklu won in a fierce final sprint vs. David Martinez 3-2 (2,125/1,920) with one perfect set for Coklu. He played out the second set in one inning (15-0). In the other quarter-finals, Dong Koong Kang won against Ja-guen Kim 3-2, Minh Cam Ma was the better of Ki-ho Park, and Semih Sayginer won against Phuong Linh Nguyen 3-2 in a fortunate last set.
The ladies winner Ga-young Kim , 9th victory in 14 finals