25th November, Las Vegas: Asia powerhouse, Korea got off to a great start with debutant Hong Haeni topping the Women's Singles opening squad ahead of Hong Kong's Chan Shuk Han and Denmark's Mai Ginge Jensen in joint-second and Indonesia's Putty Armein in fourth.

Maxime De Rooij of the Netherlands set the pace with an opening game of 254 to lead by 16 pins from Cajsa Wegner of Sweden in second and Pamela Cristina Alvarez Aguilera of Mexico in third, a further eight pins away.

Hong Haeni added a superb second game of 246 to her first game of 221 to take over the running. De Rooij and Alvarez Aguilera shared second spot as the Mexican added another good game of 240 for both to trail the Korean by just a single pin.

The 24-year-old Korean National Sports University year-two sports science student was on a roll when she shot 255 in the third game to pull away to a 39-pin lead.

There was simply no stopping the Korean left-hander as she romped home with 221 and 206 to end the squad in the lead with 1330. Denmark's Mai Ginge Jensen stormed home with 244 and 256 in her last two games to tie second spot with Chan on 1312.

2017 ABF Tour Macau leg champion, Putty Armein of Indonesia also ended strongly to snatch fourth spot with 1272. Shannon Pluhowsky of United States completed the top 5 with 1271 as Alvarex Agulera and De Rooij faded off to finish sixth and seventh positions with 1255 and 1252 respectively.

The second Women's Singles squad will take to the lanes after maintenance and the combined scores of both the squads will determine the top 4 advancing to the Semi-finals to be held on Tuesday, November 26.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.