13th January, Jakarta: The opening day of the inaugural ABF Tour Tournament of Champions sees the 18-play men's field bowling head to head over the first nine of 17 games today, the 16 women playing 8 of their 15.

Malaysia's petite Wendy Chai, 27, from Kuala Lumpur, set the pace for the opening eight-game block this afternoon, bowling just two sub-200 games and with a high of 257 to hold a five-point buffer over Filipina Liza Del Rosario from Manila. Del Rosario had a slightly higher average, 224.88 over Chai's 224.25, as the Malaysian gleaned more bonus points from games won and tied.

"I really didn't know I had taken over the lead from Putty Armein of Indonesia

until the end," said Chai who totalled 1849. "I didn't bowl very well at the start as I found the lanes different from the practice session this morning. I changed my release and got better pin carry. After that I did what I always try to do, just bowl my best. I'm very happy to be in the lead and hope that I can carry on bowling well to get into the last eight tomorrow night."

ABF Tour Indonesia leg champion, who led briefly in the early stages, settled for third with a total of 1815 ahead of Malaysia's Sarah Yap in fourth with 1801 and Hong Kong's Vanessa Fung in fifth with 1797. Shalin Zulkifli (MAS-1759), Jenny Ho (HKG-1708) and Irene Garcia Benitez (PHI-1696) completed the top 8.

In the men's division, Ryan Lalisang of Indonesia, the talented player who set the lanes alight in Malaysia early last year by hitting the first and only perfect game of the 2004 ABF Tour, sits atop the leader board after the first nine games of the men's matchplay today, playing his trump card of full home center experience.

"I bowl here at Jaya Ancol Bowl nearly every day," he told us, "so I think I have a big advantage over most of the field, although Remy Ong and Ahmed Shaheen know the center well and can always post high scores. But I'm certainly the man to beat. I usually bowl around a 220 average here, so the condition suits me well. I'm now very confident that I can reach my target of getting into the last eight."

Lalisang totalled 2233 for the lead, 42 pins ahead of 15-year-old Adrian Ang of Malaysia with 2191 in second spot. Hong Kong's Wu Siu Hong took third spot with 2188 while UAE's Shaker Al-Hassan and Qatar's Ahmed Shaheen finished fourth and fifth positions with 2091 and 2067 respectively.

Two Malaysians, ABF Tour Phlippines leg champion, Alex Liew (2053) and reigning Malaysian International Open champion, Daniel Lim (2040), ABF Tour Singapore Leg champion, Jack Wong (2023) of Singapore rounded up the top 8.

The men will play another 8 games tomorrow, 14th January while the women will complete their qualifying rounds with another 7 games. The top 8 will qualify for the exicting quarterfinals knockout matches before the semifinals and finals which will be telecast LIVE on the 15th and 16th January.

The ABF Tour comprises six Legs and a Grand Final, the Tournament of Champions. Each Leg was staged over two competition days where the top 16 men and 16 women bowlers from the preceding International Open Masters Event (Open Grade) competed in a one-game match play knock-out competition for the individual men's and women's titles.

The Tournament of Champions will be staged over four competition days where the top 16 men and 16 women bowlers (based on ABF Tour ranking points), plus two additional wildcard entries from the West Asia region (thus totalling 18 men in the men's division), will qualify to compete over four rounds of competition for the coveted men's and women's ABF Tour Champion titles.

The ABF Tour - Tournament of Champions will be televised LIVE on Malaysia's Astro Supersport, Singapore's Starhub and Indonesia Metro TV (to be confirmed). Highlights of the finals will also be televised later on local television stations of the six countries where the tour is being held. It will also be broadcast later in parts of Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, China and Australasia with an estimated audience of around 90 million.

For further information and details please contact ABF Tour Committee Marketing and Event Management Division at Tel: (852) 2810 5191; Fax: (852) 28105192; Mr. Ritchie Lai (Mobile: (852) 93598669; email: ritchie.lai@tndgroup.com) or Mr. Kelvin Pong (Mobile: (852) 9100 0958; email: Kelvin.pong@tndgroup.com).