SEOUL - The PBA tour kicked off a new event with a ‘shocking’ first round for Dani Sánchez, the previous Bazzar tour winner. The Spaniard flew out in his first appearance against Jung-hoon Park with penalties and 1.286 on average, despite a 12 run. Sánchez led 2-0 (15-2, 15-2), but lost the next two sets 15-12, 15-12 and the penalty shots 2-1. A notable strong winner was Filippos Kasidokostas, who beat PBA champion Jae-ho Cho 3-0 to record 2,812.
The Crown Haitai event had a strong start for the Turks and Spaniards (Martinez, Bulut, Capak, Hashas, Sayginer, Zapata, Coklu, Yüksel, Zapata, Palazon, Montes), but apart from Sánchez there were losses in that first round by Eddy Leppens, Robinson Morales, Nguyen Quoc Nguyen.
The second round was the finishing point for Burak Hashas, who lost to Tae-jun Oh 3-1. Martinez, Coklu, Mori and Minh Cam did advance that round to the best 32. That R32 will continue to be played today, Saturday. Byoung-ho Kim delivered a standout performance in the first round with 3.214 on average, a provisional record for this tournament.
Among the ladies, multi-winner Ga-young Kim played a top match against Yo-eun Jo with 1.562 average and a best run of 13. Namiko Hayashi started her tournament with 2.273, but lost to Sruong Pheavy in the next round. The Cambodian also went out of the tour herself one round later by losing to Ji-eun Han 3-0. Orie Hida has already survived 3 rounds, Ayako Sakai has been eliminated.
David Martinez among the Spaniards moving on