6th July, Kaohsiung: 2018 Macao-China Open fourth runner-up, James Lui of Hong Kong took a comfortable victory in the Men's Open Round 1 Masters finals of the 18th Kaohsiung International Open Bowling Championships.

Lui set a blistering pace with 253 in his opening game to lead Chinese Taipei's Fang Chih-Nan by 8 pins as debutant, Cullum Borck of Australia and a second Taiwanese, Chen Ming-Tang shared third spot.

The Hong Kong national kept his lead despite a moderate 218 in the second game. Hig team-mate, Jimmy Cheung narrowed the gap to 5 pins as he added 232 to his 234 opener. Cheng Hsing-Chao of Chinese Taipei and a third Hong Kong national, Mike Chan followed in third and fourth.

Another good game of 225 saw Lui stretched his lead slightly to 10 pins as the 17-year-old Aussie moved into second. Borck took over the lead after another superb game of 259 in the fourth. Lui slipped down to second despite a good game of 224.

The leader cruised to a comfortable victory with 247 and 255 in the seventh and eighth game for a total of 1968. Borck trailed up to the seventh game but dropped to fourth with 1752 after disasterous 150 in his final game.

2018 PBA-WBT Busan Cup champion, Annop Arromsaranon had gradually moved up to eventually snatch second spot with 1809, 159 pins adrift. 2017 ABF Tour Chinese Taipei leg champion, Atchariya Cheng was handed third spot with 1754.

Cheng Hsing-Chao completed the top 5 with 1747. Desperado squad qualifier, Lin Yu-Yu survived the round to claim the cut in 18th position with 1605. Hong Kong's Joshua Chow missed the cut by 7 pins to finish in 19th position.

Defending champion, Tsai Chih-Yuen crashed out in 27th position. The top 18 finishers will resume with another 8 games in Round 2 joined by the top 3 local and top 3 overseas seeded qualifiers tomorrow.