Top Seed Light Up Asia Open QS1,000

The 2022 Asia Open presented by Parasol QS1,000 ran through Round of 64 of the men's division in clean and pristine 3 to 4 foot peaks at Ichinomiya, Chiba. The opening rounds have seen Japan's emerging talent do battle for a spot in the next Round against the event's top seeds.

Amuro Tsuzuki's red hot form continued at Chiba, having previously won the last WSL QS at this venue and won Bronze Medal at the first event time surfing was held in the Olympic Games at this venue last year. Today she scored a 8.50 and a 7.25, easily top scoring the day.

"It was harder than it looked out there," Tsuzuki said. "I had a lot of fun, I have a lot of friends in this event and it's exciting see Japan's next generation of surfers. I am very excited to see what happens in the next few days."

Event No. 1 seed Shun Murakami from Watari put on a show in his opening heat of the event. He paddled north and sat away from his fellow competitors, finding multiple clean left handers, the perfect canvas for the stylist goof-footer who scored a 7.50 and a 6.25.

"The was are so much better than yesterday - it's really fun out there," Murakami said. "I was lucky to find some good wave and did a couple of two-turn waves and get some scores. It's only my first heat of the event, so I just want to focus on the next round and keep going."

Up-and-coming Riki Sato took an impressive win today, finding a couple of clean waves and nailing some solid turns to advance into the Round of 32.

"The waves were so fun, but I kept falling off at the start of the heat," Sato said. "Luckily I caught 10 waves and was able to get a couple of scores. I'm having a lot of fun, hopefully I can keep winning. "