GOYANG - 36-year-old Turk Birol Uymaz and 46-year-old Japanese Orie Hida are the winners of the 3rd PBA Tour this season. For both players, previously playing for the UMB, this was the first time they reached the finals of a PBA event. Birol Uymaz defeated Korean Jae-geun Kim 4-1 in the final, Orie Hida won her match against Korean veteran Ma-rie Lee 4-2. The winner's prize of 71,000 euros goes to Uymaz, the top prize in the ladies' category of 15,000 to Hida.
Orie Hida is the four-time world champion in the UMB (2004, 2006, 2008 and 2017) and finished second behind Therese Klompenhouwer twice in her career, in 2018 and 2019. She made the switch to the Korean PBA cycle last year, but did not manage to get high prize money in her first tournaments. This time, the Japanese lady lived up to her reputation, including in the quarterfinal match against Cambodian Sruong Pheavy, whom she defeated 3-1.
Then Orie Hida faced Bo-mi Kim in the semi-finals (3-1 win), before meeting Ma-rie Lee in the final. That match - for the first time in the women's category they played to four winning sets - became an exciting six-setter: Orie Hida won the first set 11-7 in three, then Ma-rie Lee levelled with 11-9, Hida took a 3-1 lead with 11-10 and 11-3, let her opponent come back once to 3-2, but won the last set 11-7. The averages were 0.899 for Hida, 0.721 for Lee.
The run-up to the final for the ladies was not of a super high level in terms of averages either. Orie Hida reached the final against Bo-mi Kim with 1.026, Ma-rie Lee qualified for the final against Ga-young Kim with 0.882.
Birol Uymaz had a strong run to the finals and was superior in the battle for the main prize against Jae-geun Kim, a seasoned Korean who won gold with South Korea at the World Championships for national teams in Viersen. The final battle showed a sovereign Uymaz with 15-12 and 15-7 win for 2-0, Kim came back once with 15-5, but in the last two sets Uymaz hit with 15-14 and 15-9 (averages 1.667 and 1.500).
Like in the women's tournament with Orie Hida and Sruong Pheavy, in the men's tournament the match between Birol Uymaz and Frédéric Caudron in the semifinals was the absolute top match with, among others, high runs by Uymaz (13) and Caudron (12). The Turk started with a set win (15-7), saw Caudron come back with 15-12, after which the match was balanced again with a win by Uymaz (15-9) and immediately afterwards by Caudron (15-13).
The Belgian seemed to get the better when Caudron took a 3-2 lead in the fifth set (15-4), but his combative Turkish opponent had the best final sprint. He first came to 3-3 with 15-12 and won the decisive set to 11 points 11-6. The averages in the final: Uymaz 1.848, Caudron 1.756.
Birol Uymaz had beaten strong Spaniard David Martinez 3-2 in the quarterfinals and won the best 16 against well-known Vietnamese Dinh Nai Ngo 3-0 with a 2.647 average.
Eddy Leppens played himself into the semi-finals, but had no chance against Jae Geun Kim, 4-1 in sets, averaging 1.449/1.000. Other European players who came far were Javier Palazón, who was eliminated in the best 16. Can Capak reached the last 32, where the Turk lost to Sang-dae Lee. In that round, Antonio Montes was eliminated by Min-gu Kang 3-2.
The final ranking in the men:
1 Birol Uymaz, Turkey
2 Jae Geun Kim, South Korea
3 Frédéric Caudron, Belgium
3 Eddy Leppens, Belgium.
The final ranking in the ladies:
1 Orie Hida, Japan
2 Ma-rie Kim, Korea
3 Ga-young Kim, Korea
3 Bo-mi Kim, Korea
Birol Uymaz after his first PBA victory