Month of truth for PBA players and league

SEOUL – The Korean Professional Billiard Association (PBA) is entering the month of truth with the team competition and the individual events. The second year of PBA is approaching the finals: Belgian Frédéric Caudron leads the individual ranking after four tournaments ahead of Koreans Hyun-min Seo, Seong-uk Oh, Spaniard Javier Palazón and Min-gu Kang. Filippos Kasidokostas, Minh Cam Ma and Birol Uymaz are in top ten. The most striking jump was made by Javier Palazón after his victory to the fourth place. Turkish player Savas Bulut is on 12th position after his place in the semi-finals just behind his Turkish compatriot Birol Uymaz.

The Phoenix team (Frédéric Caudron, Birol Uymaz, Hyun-min Seo, Ye-eun Kim) leads the Team League ranking followed by Heroes (Filippos Kasidokostas, Byeong-ho Kim and Mi-rae Lee) and Winners (Eddy Leppens, Dong-Koong Kang, Bo-mi Kim). The Team League is facing the final regular round in a few days, Monday 1 February, before the final rounds, the play-offs, will be played from 18-22 February.

The last, fifth round of the individual PBA tournament will be played from 10-14 February, after which the final with 32 players, according to the ranking over five tournaments, will close the season from Thursday, February 26 to Friday, March 5.

The PBA ranking is based on both prize money and points, but does not differ much. Caudron leads in points with 150,000 ahead of Seo with 117,000 and Oh with 110,000. In the prize money ranking, Caudron leads with 117,500 million Korean Won (84,250 euros) ahead of Seo with 106 million and Su Oh with 103,5 million.

According to the preliminary ranking, the non-Korean players Caudron, Palazón, Ma, Kasidokostas, Uymaz, Bulut, Piedrabuena, Leppens, Zapata, Papakonstantinou, Morales and Ngo are well ranked to qualify for the final tournament.

The rankings, one tournament away from the finals:

Team League:
1 Phoenix 41 points (1,299)
2 Heroes 37 (l, 249)
3 Winners 36
4 Alphas 31
5 Laon 28
6 Angels 27.

The individual top five in the Team League:
1 Mi-rae Lee (Heroes)
2 Hyun Min Seo (Phoenix)
3 Ga-young Kim (Alphas)
4 Frédéric Caudron (Phoenix)
5 Juan David Zapata (Aphfas).

The first matches for the next round, next Monday (13.00 Korean time):
Winners-Alfas
Phoenix-Heroes
Laon-Angels.

The individual ranking in points and bonuses (1 million won is 720 euros):
1 Frédéric Caudron (150,000 points, 117.5 million Korean Won
2 Hyun-min Seo 117.00 (106 million)
3 Seong-uk Oh 110.00 (103.5 million)
4 Javier Palazón 101,000 (102 million)
5 Min-gu Kang 92,000 (50 million)
6 Jeong 54,000
7 Minh Cam Ma 52,000
8 Filippos Kasidokostas 52,000 (35 million)
9 Seo 50,000
10 Birol Uymaz 40,000 (15 million)
11 HW Kim 37,000
11 Savas Bulut 37,000 (13 million)

The non Koreans:
19 Pedro Piedrabuena 25,000 (7.5 million)
21 Eddy Leppens 22,000 (5.5 million)
25 David Zapata 20,000 (5 million)
30 Kostas Papakonstantinou 17,000 (6 million)
31 Robinson Morales 16,000 (4 million)
36 Dinh Nai Ngo 15,000
48 Jean Paul de Bruijn 12,000 (3.5 million)
62 Glenn Hofman 10,000 (2.5 million)
63 David Martine 8,000 (2.5 million)
64 Adnan Yüksel 6,000 (3 million)
76 Nguyen 6,000 (1.5 million)
78 Carlos Anguita 4,000 (2 million)
100 Tonny Carlsen 2,000 (1 million)
101 Pierre Soumagne 2,000 (1 million).
In total 140 players have been in action.