3-Cushion
SEOUL - The fifth and penultimate tournament of the PBA Team League ended after 5 days and 5 matches for each team with a lead for the Phoenix team with Frédéric Caudron, Birol Uymaz and Hyun-min Seo. In Seoul, where the matches are played, were very wintery conditions these days: 14 degrees down zero and 15 centimeters of snow. The Phoenix team leads with 41 points, main rival Heroes (Filippos Kasidokostas, Byeong-ho Kim and Mi-rae Lee), follows four points down. The Winners team (Eddy Leppens) is third.
After the last meeting between the six teams, the three teams on top will play the play-offs for the first championship in the Korean Team League. The Phoenix team won the head-to-head game against Heroes 4-1. Phoenix averaged 1,455 in the top match, Heroes had an off-day with 0,833 on average.
Frédéric Caudron and Hyun-min Seo set the tone for the doubles win against Filippos Kasidokostas and Byeong-ho Kim, 15-3 in 6/5, then Yu-ram Cha defeated Mi-rae Lee 11-7 in the women's match in 12. In the men's single, Caudron was a way too strong for Kasidokostas 15-2 in 4, leading Phoenix already to 3-0. In mixed doubles, Heroes came back to 3-1, but the brilliantly playing Hyun-min Seo, winner of the last individual PBA tournament, showed his class against Robinson Morales.
In the last match of the session, Winners secured third place by a 4-2 victory over Alphas. As a result, Winners is third, Alphas fourth. In the individual ranking (based on the total number of wins), Mi-rae Lee (Heroes) leads with 31 wins and 19 losses (62 percent). Hyun-min Seo (Phoenix) is second and best in the men with 27 wins and 10 losses (73%), the second lady, Ga-young Kim, (Alphas) is third with 26 wins (52%).
Ga-young Kim's victory in the women's match against Mi-rae Lee was striking: 11-0 in 4/3 innings. Ga-young Kim also won a match over 11 points in 2 innings against Gap-sun Kim. Juan David Zapata and Frédéric Caudron are in joint fourth place in the standings with 23 wins. Eddy Leppens is sixth with 20 victories.
The results of this fifth tournament: Day 1: Phoenix-Laon 4-0, Alphas-Heroes 3-3, Winners-Angels 4-1. Day 2: Winners-Heroes 2-4, Alphas-Laon 3-3, Phoenix-Angels 2-4 Day 3: Laon-Winners 2-4, Heroes-Angels 2-4, Phoenix-Alphas 4-1 Day 4: Alphas-Angels 3-3, Phoenix-Winners 3-3, Laon-Heroes 3-3 Day 5: Phoenix-Heroes 4-1, Angels-Laon 2-4, Winners-Alphas 4-2.
Ranking after fifth day: 1 Phoenix 10, 2 Winners 10, 3 Angels 7, 4 Heroes 5, 5 Laon 5, 6 Alphas 3.
The total ranking with only 1 tournament to play:
1 Phoenix 41 points (1,299)
2 Heroes 37 (l,249)
3 Winners 36
4 Alphas 31
5 Laon 28 6
Angels 27.
The sixth session is from February 1 to 5. The next individual PBA tournament is January 19-23.
Korean lady player Mi-rae Lee is the best in the entire field in the number of wins