10th October, Dubai: Kim Bolleby of Sweden is eyeing to recapture the title he won in 2012 after a stunning performance in the qualifying rounds to lead the Open standings of the 5th Dubai International Bowling Tournament 2014.
The 23-year-old Bolleby, who advanced into the second round of the finals only to finish in a disappointing 13th last year, rolled three 3-games series of 688, 716 and 725 to lead the standings with a 9-game aggregate of 2129.
The Swede also pocket 1,000 UAE dirham daily high series award with 725. National bowler, Naif Oqab, also a left-hander, finished second to Bolleby with 2094 from 697, 717 and 680 series.
Second perfect game shooter and early leader, Ghalib Al Busaidi of Oman slipped down to third with 2067. The top 3 plus the top seeded Emirati qualifier will earn a bye for the Round 3 finals.
2014 Hong Kong Open champion, Hussain Al Suwaidi of UAE missed the top bracket by a single pin to finish fifth in the standings with 2066. With his lowest 3-game series of 650, he will surely be able to improve on that to challenge for a place in the top 3.
Asian Games Incheon Masters bronze medalist, Shaker Al Hassan, who has already picked up his biggest career win when he triumphed in the PBA-WBT Bahrain Open this year, is well placed in sixth position with 2063.
Defending champion, Mahmood Al Attar of UAE managed seventh position with 2037 while the current cut after 9 days of qualifying rounds is held by 2014 ABF Tour Thailand leg champion, Shaik Abdul Hameed of India with 1761.
Qualifiers positioned 5 to 24 together with 4 qualifiers from the one-game desperado squad will contest the 8-games Round 2 finals on October 13. The top 12 finishers together with the four seeded qualifiers will advance to Round 3 finals for another 8 games on October 14.
The top 5 finishers in Round 3 will proceed to the stepladder grand finals to determine this year’s champion and for the top prize of 60,000 UAE dirhams. The top 16 Asians will also qualify for the ABF Tour UAE leg on October 15.
Two additional divisions, Youth and Women where the top 10 in the qualifying standings will contest the 8-games semi-finals on October 12. The top 4 will proceed to the stepladder finals. The top 8 women qualifiers will qualify directly to the stepladder finals shootout.