6th October, Kuwait: Ivan Tse of Hong Kong, China was the only player in Group B to secure his spot in Round 2 after winning all five matches for 15 points at the 2023 IBF World Bowling Championships while the remaining three had to go through the agony of a 9th and 10th frame tie-breaker roll off.

Tse set a cracking pace winning his opening match with 265 followed by a second win with 249 in his first two matches. The Hong Kong, China national continued his relentless pace with a third win with 224. Despite winning the last two matches with identical 195, it was sufficient to finished top of Pool 1.

Mathias Gronne Ankerdal of Denmark and Ahmad Muaz scored 12 points a peice with four wins but had to break the tie in a 9th and 10th frame roll-off. Muaz failed to convert a 3-pin spare while the Dane spared his.

Ankerdal went on to down three strikes in his 10th frame for a total of 50 pins and although the Malaysia also produced three strikes in the 10th frame, his 39 pins was not good enough giving the Dane top spot in Pool 2.

Tobias Boerding of Germany also had to endure the tie-breaker after he and Jordan Jung of Canada tied on 12 points each. But the German easily dispatched the Canadian to earn top spot and advance to the next round.

Egypt's Ayman Mohamed defeated crowd favorite, Mohammed Abdullah of Kuwait in a second 9th and 10th frame roll-off after tieing in the first with 40 pins each. But an early split from the Kuwaiti gave confidence to the Egyptian, who went on to clinch top spot and to advance into the next round.

Players drawn in Group C divided into four pools of 6 players will contest their preliminaries tomorrow. The winner of each pool will advance. There three remaining groups, D, E and F will take to the lanes on October 8.

A total of 24 qualifiers from the preliminaries will contest Round 2, divided into four groups. The winner of each group will advance to the semi-finals and final shootout.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Kuwait.