PBA players chase jackpot in final event

SEOUL - With 32 players both at the men and women, the Korean PBA and LPBA league has started the battle for its World Championship. The players were divided into eight groups of four from which the best two man players and lady players advance to the 16-player knockouts. The men have now all played two matches out of three, while the ladies play their second match today.

The top prize in the men's is 140,000 euros. The 32 participants come from Korea (17), Spain (5), Vietnam (4), Turkey (4), Belgium (1) and Japan (1).

Already qualified in the men's groups after the first two rounds are Murat Naci Coklu, Semih Sayginer, Young-won Kim, Lütfi Cenet, Nguyen Quoc Nguyen, Sang pil Eom and Yusuke Mori, who are leaders in their group with 4 match points.

The best player of the regular season, David Martinez, started with a loss against Ki-ho Park, the number 32 ranked player: 3-2. The Spaniard recovered with the maximum win against Eddy Leppens: 3-0. Four players, including Sung-won Choi, who lost to Leppens, are in this group with 2 match points out of 2 games.

Murat Naci Coklu won convincingly against Hyun woo Kim and Dinh Nai Ngo, Semih Sayginer beat Burak Hashas 3-1 and Dong Koong Kang 3-1. Sayginer is already among the best 16, Hashas and Kang are playing for the second qualifying spot.

Dani Sánchez won his first match vs Jae-guen Kim and lost his second to compatriot Antonio Montes 3-0. David Zapata, another Spanish giant in the PBA, lost his two matches to Nguyen Quoc Nguyen and Min-gu Kang 2-3.

The 2022 and 2023 champion Jae-ho Cho is almost eliminated by losing against Dinh Nai Ngo and Hyun Woo Kim. Javier Palazón won vs Min-gu Kang 3-2, but lost to Nguyen 3-0.

In the women's side, first winners included Se-yeon Kim, the champion (against Orie Hida), Ayako Sakai, Ga-young Kim and Ji-eun Kim and started Sruong Pheavy with a loss.

Yusuke Mori from Japan already qualified in last 16