9th July, Kaohsiung: Atchariya Cheng of Thailand averaged 221 over four matches to capture his first-ever Men's tour title at the ABF Tour Chinese Taipei 2017 while debutant, Bianca Tofilau of New Zealand won the women's crown.
Cheng kicked off the final with a strike while his challenger and 17th Koahsiung International Open Masters first runner-up, Hsieh Chin-Liang missed a single pin in his opening frame. The Thai struck again in the third and fourth frames to open up a 43 pins lead after the Taiwanese opened again in the fourth frame.
Although Hsieh struck twice in the seventh and eighth frames, Cheng responded supberly with a strike to maintain a decent gap going into the final frame. Hsieh's final-frame strike did not matter as the Thai ended the match with a 229-210 victory.
The champion had earlier ousted 17th Kaohsiung International Open Masters second runner-up, Lin Pai-Feng of Chinese Taipei, 230-210 in the second semi-final match to reach the final. Cheng also dispatched newly-crowned 17th Koahsiung International Open Masters champion, Tsai Chih-Yuen, 234-220 in the second round.
Atchariya Cheng winning his first tour title
Cheng survived the opening round with a 193-187 narrow win over Tsai Ting-Yun of Chinese Taipei. Hsieh took out compatriot, Wu Hao-Ming 245-211 in the all-Taiwanese first semi-final match and another fellow-countrymen Chen Chia-Hsing, 197-186 in Round 2.
Meanwhile, Bianca Tofilau of New Zealand won all the four matches in her debut to capture the women's crown. She easily defeated Su Shu-Wen of Chinese Taipei, 210-179 in her opening round and then edged a second Taiwanese 244-241 to advance to the semi-final.
Tofilau and her opponent, Chan Shuk Han of Hong Kong were both struggling after having open a frame each up to the mid-way point of the match. And two more open frames by Chan allowed the Kiwi to beat Chan, 181-179 and make the finals.
In the final match against Chang Yu-Hsuan, Tofilau had gathered four strikes in seven frames while her challenger failed to find one. Although Chang did eventually manage to strike twice in the eighth and ninth frames, it was too little too late as Tofilau went on to claim her first-ever tour title with a comfortable 233-166 victory.
Chang reached the final after she dispatched 17th Kaohsiung International Open first runner-up, Pan Yu-Fen 221-180 in the first semi-final match.
A first-ever tour title for debutant, Bianca Tofilau
Pan also beat two compatriots, Huang Chiung-Yao and Wang Yu-Huei in the first two rounds. Mr Wu Fu-Lung, President of Chinese Taipei Bowling Association, presented the champion's trophies and the prize money of US$500 each. The first runner-ups settled for US$300 each while all four losing semi-finalists were awarded US$150 a piece.
The ABF Tour Chinese Taipei 2016 leg is the third of five legs to be staged in East Asia this year with a prize money of US$2,200 for each leg. The next stop will be in Hong Kong, China on July 6. For further information and details, please contact ABF Tour Committee at Tel: +852 2893 6039, Fax: +852 2893 6290; Email: hktbc@netvigator.com.
Photos by Terence Yaw in Kaohsiung.
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