SEOUL – The PBA team league, the Korean professional tour, has started the new year with the Savings Bank team in the lead after the first matches. Dani Sánchez and Semih Sayginer are playing together in one team after Sánchez's transfer to this sponsor. The top three currently consists of Welcome Savings Bank (Sánchez, Sayginer, Ye-eun Kim), Hana Card (Murat Naci Coklu, Nguyen Quoc Nguyen, Ga-young Kim), SK Rent-a Car (Eddy Leppens, Dong Koong Kang, Orie Hida) and Nonghyup Card (Jae-ho Cho, Minh Cam Ma, Antonio Montes, Ivan Mayor, Min-a Kim).
Dani Sánchez was lured to the Savings Bank team between the two team leagues and was exchanged for the Korean Hyun-min Seo. Savings Bank (Phoenix) was previously the team of Frédéric Caudron and Filippos Kasidokostas, among others, and wants to make a bid for the title. The leaders, with a 1-point lead over Hana Card, won the top match against Hana Card 4-3, Woori Weebies 4-0, Nonghyup Card 4-3, but lost the last match 4-3 to Crown Hatai. In that match, Jae guen Kim beat Dani Sánchez 11-0 and Semih Sayginer beat David Martinez 15-9.
For Welcome Savings, Sánchez and Sayginer beat Zapata and Sun, among others. In the top match against Hana Card, Nguyen Quoc was the better of Sánchez 11-4 and Coklu and Ga-young Kim beat Sayginer and Young 9-5.
For Hana Card in the match against Nonghyup Card, Coklu defeated Hyun Woo Kim 11-4, Nguyen Quoc was defeated by Jae-ho Cho 15-3, and the Spaniards Antonio Montes and Ivan Mayor won the exciting match against Coklu and Shin 11-10.
Crown Hatai, where former Korean world champion Higashiuchi is making a new start, is currently in the lower regions of the table. However, the team did beat leaders Savings Bank 4-3. In its last match, Crown Hatai beat High Resort 4-1, thanks in part to David Martinez, who beat Lütfi Cenet 15-4. The Turks Cenet and Hashas did win the doubles against Martinez and Oh 11-8.
The team league will finish the first of six rounds in the coming week. The top prize is 100 million 2on, 70,000 euros.
The provisional standings:
1 Welcome Savings Bank, Phoenix 10 match points
2 Hana Card 9
3 SK Rent a car, Direct 8
4 Nonghyup Card 7
5 High Resort Winners 7
6 Woori Won Weebies 7
7 SY Builders 6
8 Harim Dragons 6
9 Crown Haitai, Laon 5
10 Huons, Legend 4
Young Spaniard Ivan Mayor after winning a match for his team Nonghyup Card
Jun Tae Kim (r) in the new team Harim Dragons
Vietnamese Hoang Yen Nhi Nguyen, the first Vietnamese lady in the PBA team league, last year's podium player in UMB world championship
The new team compositions are:
Welcome Savings Bank (Team Phoenix)
Dani Sánchez, Jong-won Kim, Ji-seung Han, Semih Sayginer
Dames: Ye-eun Kim, Hyun-ji Yong, Hye-mi Choi
SY (Sy builders)
Deuk-hee Hwang, Hyun-min Seo, Won-jun Choi, Yusuke Mori
Dames Ji-eun Han, Woo-kyung Lee, Hoang Yen Nhi Nguyen, Bal-hae Kwan
SK Rent a car (Direct)
Dong Koong Kang, Eddy Leppens, Keon-hwi Cho, Dinh-nai Ngo
Dames: Ji-eun Kang, Ye-eun Jo, Orie Hida
NH Nonghyup Card (NH Pay)
Jae-ho Cho, Hyun-woo Kim, Minh Cam Ma, Antonio Montes, Ivan Mayor
Dames: Min-a Kim, Bo-mi Kim, Su-bin Chung, Min-ji Hwang
Woori Financial Capital (Woori Won Weebies)
Sang-pil Eom, Min-gu Kang, Ji-hoon Sun, David Zapata
Dames: Min-young Kim, Han-soi Seo, Sruong Pheavy
Crown Hatai (Laon)
Jae-guen Kim, Byeong-chan Noh, Tae-jun Oh, David Martinez
Dames: Min-ju Baek, Jung-suk Lim, Natsumi Higashiuchi
Hana Card (HanaPay)
Byeong-ho Kim, Jung-ju Shin, Murat Naci Coklu, Nguyen Quoc Nguyen
Dames: Ga-young Kim, Jin-ah Kim, Ayako Sakai
Harim Dragons
Jun-tae Kim, Young-won Kim, Phuong-linh Nguyen, Duc-minh Tran
Dames: Sang-a Kim, Jeong-hyun Park, Bo-yoon Jung
High Resort (Winners)
Chong-bok Lee, Sung-gyun Im, Lütfi Cenet, Burak Hashas
Dames: Da-hee Kim, Mi-rae Lee, Gyeong-jin Im, Ji-woo Jeon
Huons (Legend)
Sung-won Choi, Sang-dae Lee, Robinson Morales, Javier Palazon
Dames: Se-yeon Kim, Shin-young Lee, You-ram Cha