SEOUL - The Turkish players, total with seven in the PBA, have been eliminated for the final rounds of the High Resort tournament. Two Spaniards are still in the race, Javier Palazón and Antonio Montes, after Juan David Zapata, David Martinez in the previous round and Dani Sánchez was eliminated by Zapata one round earlier. The only Belgian in the PBA, Eddy Leppens, was the better of Murat Naci Coklu 3-0 and is now one of three Europeans with Palazón and Montes for the top prizes. Eddy Leppens, after the superior match against Coklu (3-0, 1.733/0.880), is aiming for the round with the best eight and will play Joo-sun Park tomorrow to make that happen.
Javier Palazón faces Dong-woo Han, Antonio Montes is playing Sung-ho Kang. Two of the best-known Koreans play against each other: Ja-ho Cho meets Hyung-bum Hwang, the player who eliminated Juan David Zapata 3-0 (averages 1.875/1.318) in the previous round.
Among the three Vietnamese Nguyens in the PBA, only Phuong Linh Nguyen is left among the top 16. The most famous, Nguyen Quoc Nguyen, was beaten by Hyun-min Seo.
The women's tournament is up to the semi-finals, in which Japan's Ayako Sakai, already winner of an LPBA tournament this year, faces Se-yeon Kim, the former world champion at the LPBA. Hye-won Im and Jung-in Kim are the other semi-finalists. Ayako Sakai eliminated Jieun Han 3-2 after a tough fight and 9-3 for Sakai in the fifth set. Hye-won Im eliminated Sruong Pheavy 3-2 (averages 0.833/0.759).
Strong Japanese lady Ayako Sakai