18th November, Palembang: 2015 Saudi Open champion, Francois Louw of South Africa led the Men's opening block of six games at the 55th QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup underway at Jakabaring Bowling Center on Monday.

Bulgaria's Dian Dinev got off to a cracking start with 254 in his opening game to lead debutant, Eugene Yeo of Singapore by six pins. Chris Hignett of Wales and 2019 Asian Championships Trios silver medallist, Jasem Alsaqer of Kuwait also had good starts with 247 and 246 to trail in second and third.

Dinev added an identical 254 in his second game to extend his lead to 31 pins as Francois Louw added 235 to his first game of 242 to take up second spot. Alsaqer rolled 227 to go third while Latvia's Daniel Vezis shot 202 and 266 for fourth.

The 45-year-old Bulgarian continued his relentless pace with another superb 234 stretching his lead to 40 pins as the South African continued to trail in second. Vezis moved ahead of Alsaqer into third after the Kuwaiti stumbled to a low 177.

Vezis shared second spot with Dinev as Ireland's two-handed Christopher Sloan and Finland's Niko Oksanen began to move up the field. The 33-year-old Louw ended the block with 227 to lead the field of 73 men with 1345.

Vezis finished second with 1302 while Sloan took third position with 1290. Debutant Lee Wanhee of Korea stormed home to snatch fourth position with 1288 followed by the recovering Alsaqer completing the top five with 1271.

Indonesia's Ryan Lalisang shot a sizzling 279 in his last game to leapfrog into ninth position with 1245. 2016 PBA-WBT Bahrain Open champion, Ahmed Alawadhi of Bahrain rolled the highest single-game of 290 in the block to round out the top 10 with 1239.

The women will take to the lanes at 15:00hrs local time for their first block of six games while the men will resume with their second block at 14:00hrs tomorrow after the women finish their second block.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Palembang, Indonesia.