GYEONGJU - The new PBA season kicked off this week with varying performances from the European players. The opening round of the cycle in Gyeongju saw a success for Semih Sayginer as one of the debutants, other new stars such as Dani Sánchez, Murat Naci Coklu and Choong Bok Lee did not make it through the first round. The first round included Semih Sayginer, who beat strong Korean Hyun Min Seo, a previous PBA winner, 3-0 and 1.500 on average. Javier Palazón, Eddy Leppens, Lütfi Cenet, Savas Bulut and Adnan Yüksel also made it to the second round. According to still unconfirmed reports, Greeks Filippos Kasidokostas and Kostas Papakonstantinou have quit the PBA.
Semih Sayginer played an outstanding match on his PBA debut against Hyun min Seo, a Korean who has already finished on the podium twice and won a PBA event once. Sayginer was in control for almost the entire match with 15-3, 15-10 and 15-11 in set scores. One of the other Turks who also debuted, Lütfi Cenet, defeated Spaniard Antonio Montes 3-0, Eddy Leppens won over Kyong took Ko 3-0 (1,607) and Adnan Yüksel eliminated Korean debutant Choong-bok Lee by penalties.
Other well-known players who did not make it to the next round were Nguyen Quok Nguyen, Hideaki Kobayashi and Duc Anh Chien Nguyen.
Among the ladies, it seems to be heading for a Korean distribution of prizes. Orie Hida was eliminated in the first round, meanwhile Sruong Pheavy, Ayako Sakai and Jieun Han are also out of the tournament. The remaining (best 16) include Ga-young Kim, Ye-eun Kim, Namiko Hayashi, Gap-sun Kim and Mi-rae Lee.
Frédéric Caudron, David Martinez, Antonio Montes, Yvan Mayor earlier were eliminated in the first round.