SEOUL – The Korean PBA tour has welcomed a new tournament winner. 55-year-old Seung-jin Lee, who rarely advances beyond the early rounds of Korean professional billiard tournaments, won this week's SY Vérité tournament in the final against former world champion Sung-won Choi: 4-1. The Korean player earned 100 million Korean won (65,000 euros) for his victory. In his previous six years, the veteran earned a total of 157 million.
It's exceptional for the Korean tour: a 55-year-old winner. While Seung-jin Lee may be younger than major UMB champions like Zanetti (63), Blomdahl (62), Jaspers (60), and Caudron (57), the winners in the tournament are usually in their early thirties; the most recent winner, Yusuke Mori, is 31.
The tournament in which Seung-jin Lee and Sung-won Choi played the final was even more exceptional. For once, the Europeans were not in the race for the main positions. Only Semih Sayginer reached the last 16, where he lost to HW Kim. David Martinez, a major champion in the PBA, fell in the last 32. In the first rounds with the top 64, many Europeans were quickly defeated: Sanchez, Coklu, Leppens, Cenet, Capak, and Yüksel. In the first round with the top 128, the end was even in sight for Zapata, Mayor, and Hashas.
Seung-jin Lee defeated Min-gu Kang 4-2 in the semifinals and Robinson Morales 3-1 in the quarterfinals. Min-gu Kang defeated Jun-tae Kim, who transferred from the UMB this year, in the last eight.
Vietnamese Nguyen Quoc Nguyen played the best match of the tournament, scoring 3.214. Seung-jin Lee was the 24th PBA tournament winner since its inception in 2019/2020. Ga-young Kim won the women's final against Sruong Pheavy.
