Palazón, Zapata and Sayginer in the race for PBA finals

GYEONGJU - Success still beckons for three European billiard players in the PBA tour, where the first event is being held this week. Javier Palazón is already among the best 16, Semih Sayginer and Juan David Zapata will make a bid for the final rounds today. The PBA and LPBA (women's tour) started the season of individual events with 128 players and a long stretch of preliminary rounds. That has resulted in two Spaniards and one Turk still vying for the top prizes in the men's event.

In the ladies, Ga-young Kim, frequent winner, is again one of the top favorites. The Korean, iron lady will play Bo-mi Kim in the semi-finals. The other semi-final also features two Korean ladies: Su-jung Oh and Min-a Kim. Other big names eliminated include Sruong Pheavy, Orie Hida Ye-eun Kim, Mi-rae Lee and Jieun Han. The tournament got to see a new, 19-year-old Korean talent this week: Ga-yeon Jang was not eliminated until the last 8 by Min-a Kim.

Javier Palazón, who won one PBA tournament in the final against Min-gu Kang, reached the last eight yesterday by winning over Myung-jin Choi with the maximum 3-0 score (1.875) after winning at the last 16 against Tae-jun Oh 3-1 and 1.629 average. That puts the Spaniard in the next round against the winner of Dong-koong Kang-Sang-dae Lee. Juan David Zapata will still play Hyuk-min Kwon at the last 16. Semih Sayginer, who already survived three rounds in his first appearance for the PBA, plays Saturday, today, at 15.30 West European time against Sang-pil Eom.

The Turkish debutant will at least get the support of compatriots, who played a strong tournament but were eliminated in the last two rounds. Lütfi Cenet lost at the last 32 to Sang-dae Lee 3-1 (1,400), Adnan Yüksel to Byeong-ho Kim 3-1 (1,140) and Savas Bulut to Nam-guk Jang 3-0 (0,808).

Well-known foreigners still in the race: Jae-ho Cho, Phuong Linh Nguyen and Jung-ju Shin.

The matches can be seen on YouTube (PBA billiards live).

The iron lady Ga-young Kim, on her way to the finals

Juan David Zapata is in the last 16

Korean 19-year talent Ga-yeon Jang