Final four compete for the $100,000 top prize and WWE championship title belt Saturday and Sunday
Milford, Conn.—Four Guaranteed Rate PBA Tour players remain in the 2021 Kia PBA Playoffs, which will be decided this weekend on FOX Broadcast Channel. Saturday at 11 a.m. ET on Fox Sports’ FS1, Kyle Troup will take on François Lavoie and Sam Cooley will square off with Cristian Azcona in the semifinals. The winners will battle each other Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on FOX, with the winner earning a Guaranteed Rate PBA Tour title, $100,00, and a WWE championship title belt.
No. 1 Kyle Troup vs. No. 4 François Lavoie
Top seed Troup and fourth seed Lavoie both avoided upsets on the way to the semifinals. In the Round of 16, Troup eliminated No. 16 seed Andrew Anderson in a roll-off, then swept No. 9 seed and USBC Masters champion Thomas Larsen in the quarterfinals. Lavoie needed a roll-off in both his matches, taking out 13th seed Dick Allen in the Round of 16 and defending champion Bill O’Neill in the quarterfinals. Troup and Lavoie, the top two earners this season, faced each other in the final match of the Guaranteed Rate PBA Super Slam in April, which Lavoie won, 247-202.
No. 11 Sam Cooley vs. No. 15 Cristian Azcona
While the favorites took over the left side of the bracket, the right side was highlighted by upsets. 15th seed Cristian Azcona began his PBA Playoffs run with a 2-0 sweep over No. 2 seed Chris Via, then advanced to the semifinals by defeating 10th seed EJ Tackett in a roll-off. Cooley, who won his first title in the 2021 PBA Scorpion Championship, won a roll-off over No. 6 seed Jesper Svensson in the Round of 16, then took out third-seeded Tom Daugherty in the quarterfinals, also via roll-off.
The semifinal matches will use the familiar race-to-two-points format, in which each game is worth one point. If the players are tied after two games, a ninth-and-10th-frame roll-off decides the winner of the match.
In the championship match, the two finalists will compete in a best-of-five match, with the first player to win three games earning the 2021 Kia PBA Playoffs title. If the players each win two of the first four games, the match will be decided by a ninth-and-10th-frame roll-off.
The winner of the PBA Playoffs, which conclude May 16 on FOX Broadcast Channel, will earn $100,000 and a custom WWE championship title belt.
Kia PBA Playoffs Upcoming Television Schedule
Saturday, May 15 at 11 a.m. ET on FS1 – Semifinals
Sunday, May 16 at 2 p.m. ET on FOX – Championship
Kia PBA Playoffs Champions Since 2019
2019 – Kris Prather
2020 – Bill O’Neill
About the PBA
The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) is the world’s preeminent organization dedicated to the sport of bowling and its professional competition, with thousands of members and millions of fans throughout the world. The PBA plays host to bowling’s biggest tournaments from the PBA Tour, PBA Regional Tour, and PBA50 Tour. In 2020, the PBA launched PBA Jr., a club for elite youth bowlers under the age of 17 and the PBA Pinsiders, a membership for fans of the sport. For more information, please visit PBA.com.
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