Sanchez, Kang, Kim advance to round of 64 at PBA Tour 5

Top professional billiards players Daniel Sanchez of Spain, Kang Dong-gung and Kim Young-won of Harim cleared the opening round of the season's fifth tour event.

Sanchez defeated Park Nam-su 3-0 in sets to advance to the round of 64 in the men's draw of the 2026-2027 season's fifth tour, the "Jigeum Jal Saneun Bangbeop ZGM NH NongHyup Card PBA-LPBA Championship," held Tuesday at the PBA Stadium in Kintex, Goyang, Gyeonggi Province.

Having been eliminated in the round of 64 at the previous Crown Haitai Championship, Sanchez came out firing Tuesday, scoring 11 points in just three innings in the first set — including three bank shots — to dominate 15-2. He took the second set 15-12, then closed out the third 15-2 on the strength of two long runs of seven points each.

Kang beat Moon Ho-beom 3-1, while Kim dispatched Cha Gwang-su 3-0. Mori Yusuke of Japan, the defending champion from last season, also joined the round of 64 by defeating Lee Hae-dong 3-0.

Lutfi Cenet of Turkey, Eddy Leppens of Belgium, David Zapata of Spain and Oh Tae-jun also won their opening matches.

In the women's LPBA round of 32, Kim Ga-young defeated Hwang Min-ji 3-1. Jung Su-bin, winner of the previous fourth tour event, beat Park Ga-eun 3-0. Kang Ji-eun, Kim Da-hee and Han Ji-eun also advanced to the round of 16 after tiebreakers.

On Wednesday, the second day of PBA round-of-128 play gets underway at 1 p.m., with the remaining LPBA round-of-32 matches scheduled for 3:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.