GOYANG - The ladies in the PBA tour, totalling some 100 players, are in the final part of the sixth event of this season. The Nonghyup Card event, played in Goyang, a suburb of Seoul with 1 million inhabitants, is seen as the run-up to the final phase for the men and ladies in the Korean professional league. Spanish top player David Martinez leads this year's ranking ahead of Korean Dong-koong Kang, Belgians Eddy Leppens and Frédéric Caudron and another Spaniard, David Zapata. Cambodian star Sruong Pheavy is the leader in the ladies' ranking ahead of Ji-eun Kang and Se-yeon Kim.
The ladies have played an extra sponsor tournament, in which Sruong Pheavy was the winner in the first weeks of December. The tournament that has now reached the last eight, with the finals just in the new year, is the penultimate tournament of the season. After that, there will be one more etap for the ladies from January 26 to February 2 and finally the Women's World champ tournament from March 19 to 28.
The top of the PBA ladies regularly peaks at high averages in the last tournaments, proving that the PBA ladies tour is world class. Sruong Pheavy, who came over from the UMB last year, has already won two tournaments, Ga-young Kim, former world champion in pool billiards, Se-yeon Kim and Mi-rae Lee are the other undisputed top ladies. The Japanese stars, transferred from the UMB, Orie Hida, Namiko Hayashi and Natsumi Higaschiuchi, have not yet been able to claim leading roles.
Orie Hida, the four-time UMB world champion, left for the PBA last year, but was eliminated in the preliminaries so far. She did not even play in the two events in recent weeks. Orie Hida is recovering from a minor medical procedure and will play again in the new year.
After the last quality injection, the PBA ladies events can be considered as prestigious meetings of the world's top women's. Dutch Therese Klompenhouwer is the only world class player who has not been tempted to make a transition. She is the only one from the last UMB World Championships: the others, Orie Hida, Sruong Pheavy, Bo-mi Kim and Ayako Sakai finished in the top five in the last two World Championships in Valencia and Izmir.
Three of those four do not appear in the top schedule of earnings in the women's PBA year. There, Sruong Pheavy is followed by players who have no UMB history and thus are new in the firmament. The only known player is Ga-young Kim with her palmares as a pool player.
The PBA ladies circuit (LPBA) is mainly an Asian affair with Korean and Japanese players and Sruong Pheavy, the wonder girl from Cambodia. From outside Asia, only Amai Najjari and Andrea Hofman are in competition, because they are partners of Frédéric Caudron and Glenn Hofman, but in the rankings, these two European ladies are at the bottom with 0 euro earnings.
The picture is completely different in the men's league, where all the world's top players have definitively chosen for the UMB. Only Frédéric Caudron from the top of the UMB circuit is one of the main players of the PBA with three tournament wins so far. Javier Palazón is the only other European to have won a World Cup at the UMB. Filippos Kasidokostas, another former UMB top player, has left the PBA after almost two years.
The young Spaniards, with David Martinez and David Zapata in the lead, have made a fantastic progression after their transfer to the PBA. David Martinez even leads the league this season. David Zapata won the most important tournament last season with a top prize of 220,000 euros.
In that respect, it is interesting to hear the opinion of the new European junior champion Ivan Mayor from Spain. His response: ''I am facing an important choice. I think the future of our sport lies there and I hope it can spread worldwide in the years to come. Hopefully, PBA success will continue. I hope that one day they come to an agreement between UMB and PBA. Then, very nice and interesting things could be done for billiards worldwide. For me, it is very motivating to see my close friends succeed in this way there in Korea. And I will work very hard to reach the level and position of them in the near future. They are my mirrors and my references, apart from being close friends.''
The tournament at the turn of the year moves on to the men's finals in the coming days. The ladies are down to the last eight: Sruong Pheavy was surprisingly eliminated in the first rounds, as were Su-ah Park and Namiko Hayashi. The best matches so far were played by Mi-rae Lee (1,900, run 13), Ga-young Kim (1,467) Se-yeon Kim (1,278) Ayako Sakai (1,227), Min-young Kim (1,250), Jung-suk Lim, who was a two-time winner in the first PBA year (1,208).
Japan's Ayako Sakai is in the best eight of a tournament for the second time since her transition. The players who were surprisingly eliminated in the final rounds according to the Survival system and the first knockout rounds: Mi-rae Lee, Se-yeon Kim, Min-young Kim and Bo-ra Jeong.
The matches for the best eight are:
Ma-rie Lee-Yu-ram Cha
Ga-young Kim-Ayako Sakai
Su-jung Oh-Woo-kyung Lee
Ji-eun. Kang-Ye-eun Kim
Frédéric Caudron was one of the last players to reach the top 32 in the men's tournament today. The Belgian beat Korean opponent Jung-wan Lim 3-0 after a great last carom and 1,552 on average.
David Martinez was a surprising loser in the first round with 128 players: the Spaniard lost 3-1 to Chang-sun Yu. Eddy Leppens lost to Kyoung-hoon Nam on penalties. In the round with 64 players Savas Bulut won against Adnan Yüksel 3-0, Glenn Hofman lost 3-0 to Sung-gyun Im and a striking gap in average: 2,500 against 0,882.
The ranking after 4 tournaments for the men (earnings):
1 David Martinez 116,500 Korean won (87,000 euros)
2 Dong-koong Kang 113.500.000
3 Eddy Leppens 109.000.000
4 Frédéric Caudron 106.500.000
5 David Zapata 80,500,000
6 Jae-ho Cho 44,000,000
7 Huynh Phuong Linh Nguyen 36,000,000
8 Hyun-min Seo 11,500,000
9 Hacker 11,500,000
10 Jung-ju Shin 11,000,000
12 Javier Palazón 10,000,000 (7,000 euros)
14 Minh Cam Ma 9,000,000
17 Adnan Yüksel 8,500,000
21 Glenn Hofman 6.500.000
The ranking after 5 women's tournament in earnings
1 Sruong Pheavy 59.100.000 Korean won (44.000 euro)
2 Ji-eun Kang 25.500.000 won
3 Se-yeon Kim 22,825,000
4 Ye-eun Kim 22,700,000
5 Su-jung Oh 11,600,000
6 Ga-young Kim 10,600,000
18 Mi-rae Lee 3,225,000
19 Namiko Hayashi 3,075,000
27 Ayako Sakai 1,925,000
35 Bo-mi Kim 1.275.000
38 Natsumi Higashiuchi 1,200,000
78 Orie Hida 300,000 (200 euros)
Shared 101:
Amai Najjari and Andrea Hofmann 0 euros