The 2nd Annual Dragon Promotions Seoul Open started with Stage 1 qualifying rounds for men and women's divisions. A total of 4 qualifier tournaments for the men and 1 for the women. 11 Korean men, 3 Korean women, one local USA entrant, and 14 year old Korean upstart Kang Lee all qualified for the stage 2 side of the event.
The nightly mini open guaranteed $500 first place was won by Woong Dae Kim who is currently ranked #1 in Korea.
Stage 2 started the following day with the dominance of Korea's female talent as Koreans dominated the top seeded Japanese women invites. Korea's #5 womans player upset Japan's #1 ranked Noriyo Hayashi. 16 year old Korean sensation Yuram Cha upset #12 ranked Japan pro Sakiko Namiki and #2 JBC ranked Saeko Moori. The only foreign woman to win in the first round was Taiwan's Van Jui Fang.
The top seeded forigners that did advance included Ralf Souquet over Kang Lee (who earlier upset #20 ranked korean pro) , Thorsten Hohmann, Max Eberle, Hiroshi Takenaka, Niwa and Hoshi advanced as well as Defendong Seoul Open Champion Charlie Williams.
Matches continue tomorrow on Day 3.
Photo courtesy of Takao Takayama - onthehill.jp
