26th February, Dubai: No. 4 seed, Osku Palermaa conquered three lefties, Naif Oqab of UAE, Remy Ong of Singapore and Shaker Al-Hassan of UAE to bag the Open Masters title of the 1st Dubai International Open Bowling Tournament on Friday.

Osku Plaermaa, who reached the stepladder finals after finishing fourth in the Round 4 finals earlier, struck out from frame nine to beat No. 3 seed and the first left-handed Shaker Al-Hassan of UAE, 198-183 to advance to the next match.

A closely fought second match against No. 2 seed and a second lefty, Remy Ong of Singapore saw the Finn finished with 201 and all Ong needed was to spare his bonus frame but encountered a split to go down to the Finn with 190.

In the third match against a third lefty and top seed, Naif Oqab of UAE, a single pin miss in the sixth frame appeared to end Palermaa's fine run but Naif too missed pin 7 in the seventh frame.

Another open frame in Naif's ninth frame allowed the Finn to take the match, 203-176 forcing the match to a sudden-death decider. Palermaa was in total control in the decider, winning the match 217-193 to win the title and take home the top prize of 60,000 AED (approx. USD16,500).

"I had two lucky breaks, one in the match with Shaker and the other with Remy," said the 26-year-old 2009 European Tour champion, Osku Palermaa after the victory. "The lanes are extremely tough and it certainly favoured the left-handers.

"But the two matches warmed me up quite well and I was totally relaxed in the match against Naif. My last title was winning the World Ranking Masters in Naples almost a year ago, so this victory is very welcomed.

Naif was denied the victory on home soil in the inaugural Dubai Open and had to settle for 30,000 AED. Remy Ong won 15,000 AED for finishing second runner-up while Shaker took home 7,500 AED as third runner-up.

In the earlier Round 4, Remy Ong led most part of the 8-game finals until the seventh game in which Naif Oqab took over the running and ended the round in pole with 1843 plus 1702 he totaled from yesterday's Round 3 for a grand total of 3545.

Remy Ong finished second with 3540 and Shaker Al-Hassan third with 3506. The champion scrapped through to the stepladder finals in fourth with 3469. Mohamed Khalifa Al-Qubaisi of UAE and Ryan Lalisang of Indonesia took fifth and sixth spots.

The fourth Emirati in the finals, Hussain Al-Suwaidi and the sole Filipino and Round 2 leader, Jordan Evan finished seventh and eighth places. Bowlers from 13 countries participated in the tournament organized by Dubai International Bowling Center.

The main sponsor was Grand Capital LLC with SuperPrice Car Rental, National Quarries and United as co-sponsors. The tournament is santioned by Emirates Bowling Federation, Asian Bowling Federation and World Tenpin Bowling Association.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Dubai.

25th February, Dubai: 2009 Qatar Open champion, Remy Ong is vying for first title of the year after the Singaporean snatched pole position in Round 3 finals of the 1st Dubai International Open Bowling Tournament on Thursday evening.

Remy Ong, who squeezed into the Round 3 finals after finishing eighth in the earlier Round 2, set a blistering pace with 279 in his opening game to lead top qualifier, Wu Siu Hong of Hong Kong by 34 pins.

The 31-year-old southpaw held the lead with 224 and 206 in his next two games until the halfway mark when the Singaporean lost the lead to Wu, but only two pins adrift. Disaster struck both We and Ong when they shot 167 and 168 respectively handing the lead to the two-handed, Osku Palermaa of Finland.

But the Finn's lead was brief as UAE maestro, Mohamed Khalifa Al-Qubaisi siezed the opportunity to take over the running at the sixth

game. Mohamed Khalifa's compatriot, Shaker Al-Hassan fired 256 and 264 to storm into the front, 30 pins ahead going into the final eighth game.

It looked like Shaker will end the block in the lead but Remy Ong bounched back the strongest with 276 to take pole with a total of 1796. Shaker settled for a good second with 1793, just 3 pins behind the Singaporean.

Mohamed Khalifa took third spot with 1738 while Palermaa finished fourth with 1714. Two massive games from Naif Oqab saw the Emirati left-hander moving up from ninth to fifth on 1702 while Round 2 leader, Jordan Evan of the Philippines clinched sixth spot with 1700.

Indonesia's Ryan Lalisang finished seventh with 1686 as the eighth and final spot went to another Emirati, Hussain Al-Suwaidi with a total of 1666. Wu Siu Hong's poor 181 in the last game dropped him out of the top 8 and missing the cut by 9 pins.

The top 8 advanced into tomorrow's Round 4 finals for another 8 games with pins carried forward from this round. The top 4 at the end of Round 4 will proceed to the stepladder finals.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Dubai.

25th February, Dubai: Filipino, Jordan Evan grabbed a surprised lead over several fovourites to top Round 2 finals of the 1st Dubai International Open Bowling Tournament ahead of UAE's Shaker Al-Hassan and Kuwait's Jassem Abbas Darwish.

Ex-international, Jamal Ali Al-Marzooqi set a cracking pace with a superb 245 to lead Singapore's Remy Ong in second with 235. The Emirati held the lead up to the halfway mark and then faded off as Day 14 high series winner, Jordan Evan of the Philippines took over the running.

A sizzling 289 from the 44-year-old proshop ball driller saw Evan stretching his lead to 81 pins from former World Cup champion, Mohamed Khalifa Al-Qubaisi in second. Evan rounded off the day with 191, 211 and 226 to end the round in the lead with 1768.

Asian Indoor Games Team gold medalist and 2009 Singapore Open champion, Shaker Ali Al-Hassan stormed home with 246 in the final game to snatch second spot with 1675, 93 pins adrift the Filipino.

Jassem Abbas Darwish of Kuwait did well with an impressive 1647 to clinch third spot while Mohamed Khalifa settled for fourth with 1638. Another Filipino. Biboy Rivera took fifth spot with 1632 followed by early pace-setter, Jamal Ali and Adel Al-Mazzoqi tieing in sixth with 1625. Remy Ong squeezed into the next round in eighth position with 1607.

"After only making the finals last night, I was fairly confident that I'll be able to make the top 8 but to finish in the lead is really very surprising considering that there are so many top-class players here," said Jordan Evan.

Evan, who has been here in Dubai for 13 years, has taken up the sport nine years ago and was runnerup at one the Brunswick tournaments here and also a champion in the 2008 Overseas Filipino Workers Championship.

UAE's Fuaad Al-Mas was probably unlucky when he missed the cut by just 17 pins despite finishing strongly in his last game while Sayed Ibrahim Al-Hashemi completed the top 10 in tenth position.

The top 8 advanced into Round 3 finals and will be joined by the top 8 seeded qualifiers for another 8 games later at 8.00pm. The field will be cut to top 8 again who will proceed into Round 4 tomorrow with pins carried forward.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Dubai.

24th February, Dubai: Newcomer, Faisal Khamis of Abu Dhabi defeated No. 4 seed and fellow compatriot, Sultan MK Al-Qubaisi in the second deciding stepladder match to clinch the Graded division Masters title of the 1st Dubai International Open on Wednesday.

Top seed Faisal Khamis, lost the first match to challenger, Sultan MK Al-Qubaisi, 192-266 forcing a sudden-death decider. But the 24-year-old police officer bounched back galantly to beat his fellow compatriot, 212-180 to clinch his first-ever title since taking up the sport 3 years ago.

The newly-crowned champion had led from start to finish in the earlier 8-games finals with a total of 1608, 18 pins ahead of Ali Ahmed of UAE on 1590. Michael Bruenjes of Germany finished third with 1573 while Sultan MK AL-Qubaisi of UAE took the final stepladder spot in fourth with 1565.

Sultan ousted No. 3 seed, Michael Bruenjes, 202-191 in the first match

to meet No. 2 seed, Ali Ahmed. Sultan edged Ali, 174-166 to earn the right to challenge for the title against Faisal.

Despite beating the top seed in the first match, Sultan's fine run came to an end when he lost to Faisal in the deciding match. Faisal won 25,000 AED with the title while Sultan settled for 13,000 AED. Ali took home 7,500 AED and Bruenjes won 6,000 AED.

Samantha Hannan from Great Britain missed the stepladder but finished as the best female competing against the men in fifth position with 1552. Hashim Al-Hashimi, who trail Faisal in the early stages dropped to sixth with 1517.

Qualifying for the Open division will end late this evening and the Round 2 Masters finals will be held at 1.00pm tomorrow. Round 3 will be contested at 8.00pm. Round 4 will be held on Friday, February 26.

Another Swede, Robert Anderson and Shaker Al-Hassan of UAE completed the top 5 with 3957 and 3925 respectively. Kuwait's Khaled Al-Dubyyan and Finn Osku Palermaa appeared to be the only two in the final squad to stand a chance of overhauling Larsen and Lalisang for the top 2 spots.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Dubai.

23rd February, Dubai: 2009 European Tour champion, Osku Palermaa of Finland and Mark Buffa of Canada were on a roll as the Finn stormed into fourth and the Canadian took eighth spot of the Open division qualifying standings of the 1st Dubai International Open.

Osku Palermaa, who totaled 1346 from two attempts made a day earlier, bettered his scores with three attempts today. The Finn chalked up 683 at the 6.00pm squad for a 9-game total of 2029 which moved him up to 13th position.

But in his subsequent attempt, Palermaa started off well with 258 and then set the lanes ablazed with a scintilatting 290 and rounded off with 224 for a massive 770. His superb performance gave the two-handed Finn a total of 2133 and a fourth place finish.

Palermaa's 770 robbed Indonesia's Ryan Lalisang's earlier high series of 752 to win 900 AED. Canada's Mark Buffa, who had struggled in his first two attempts after failing to recover from his long haul flight from Montreal, made amends today.

The Canadian made three back-to-back attempts netting 637, 721 and 750 for a 9-game aggregate of 2108 and squeezing into the top 8. Both Palermaa's and Buffa's improvements knocked out perfect gamer, Biboy Rivera and Singapore's Remy Ong out of the top 8.

Wu Siu Hong of Hong Kong, Naif Oqab and Hussain Al-Suwaidi of UAE sat firmly in the top 3 with 2167, 2156 and 2133 respectively and will be joined by the next five qualifiers into Round 3 finals.

The current cut off after the 3.30pm squad is 1992 and an average of 221.3. Kuwait's Mohammad Al-Zaidan, who made the cut earlier in the day is the first reserve at 19th spot while Asian Youth Championship Doubles gold medalist, Eric Tseng of Hong Kong has also dropped off to 20th position.

The six local Emiratis who qualified so far are Hassan Al-Zaabi (1988), Jamal Ali (1931), Mohammed Dawood (1916), Mohammad Al-Mehri (1896), Ahmed Ali Al-Hammadi (1895) and Faisal Obaid Ali (1878).

Photos by Terence Yaw in Dubai.

22nd February, Dubai: Indonesia's Ryan Lalisang and Singapore's Remy Ong staked their claims on the title of the 1st Dubai International Open after the duo stormed into fourth and seventh positions of the qualifying table on Tuesday.

Ryan Lalisang, who barely made the finals in 15th position yesterday, notched up an improved 672 at the 1.30pm squad to move up to 10th in the standings with 2012, 18 pins behind Singapore's Remy Ong, who shot 691 at the same squad to take up 9th with 2030.

Both Lalisang and Ong were coincidentally drawn on the same pair of lanes and were on fire at the subsequent 3.30pm squad. The 29-year-old Indonesian posted back-to-back 258s while the Singaporean was not far behind with 221 and 258.

Lalisang ended the squad with a stronger 236 giving him an awesome effort of 752, which could net him the highest series award of Day 13 and a chance to win 900 AED. Ong managed a decent 205 for a 699 attempt.

The squad moved Lalisang into fourth spot overall with 2117 while Ong also improved his position into seventh on 2062. The duo's effort put them in the top 8 who will advance into Round 3 finals.

The top 3 spots remained unchallenged with 2009 Asian Ranked No. 1, Wu Siu Hong in front with 2167 followed by Naif Obaq from Abu Dhabi, UAE in second with 2156 and Hussain Al-Suwaidi of UAE third with 2133.

UAE youngster, Mahmood Al-Attar dropped one spot into fifth with 2113 behind Lalisang followed by perfect gamer, Biboy Rivera of the Philippines sixth with 2079. Ong took seventh spot while the final eighth position went to Adel Al-Marzooqi of UAE with 2062.

Asian Indoor Games Team gold medalists, Sayed Ibrahim and Shaker Al-Hassan got relegated into the second half of the qualifying table in 9th and 10th positions and will need to improve their scores if they want to get a bye into Round 3.

Hong Kong has two additional qualifiers where Wicky Yeung and Eric Tseng finished 14th and 16th positions respectively and Mohammad Al-Zaidan was the only Kuwaiti in the finals in 18th position.

2009 European Ranked No. 1, Osku Palermaa of Finland has just taken to the lanes for his first two squads and only managing 668 and 678. Another decent attempt would put the Finn into the finals. Canadian, Mark Buffa has also made two attempts but his scores of 532 and 537 would not put him anywhere inside the top 18.

The Graded division Masters finals will be held in tomorrow afternoon as the Open division bowlers will have Day 14 as their final day of qualifying. The Round 2 finals will be staged on Thursday, February 25 and the Rounds 3, 4 and the stepladder finals on Friday, February 26.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Dubai.

21st February, Dubai: 2008 Asian Ranked No. 1, Hussain Al-Suwaidi of UAE won two of the three highest series award to moved up into third overall in the Open division qualifying standings of the 1st Dubai International Open.

Asian Indoor Games two gold medalist, Hussain Al-Suwaidi who won his first high series award on Day 6 of the tournament with 697, took another two awards after he shot 699 on Day 8 and today blitzed the lanes with a scintillating atempt of 737 to win Day 11 award.

His best three attempts of 697, 699 and 737 gave the 29-year-old 2133 total to improve from fifth to third overall. Hong Kong's Wu Siu Hong, who won Day 9's high series award continued to lead the standings with 2167.

Asian Indoor Games triple gold medalist, Naif Obaq of UAE, who took the early lead remained in second with 2156. Local youth, Mahmood Al-Attar finished fourth with 2133 ahead of perfect gamer, Biboy Rivera of the Philippines finished fifth with 2079.

Three Emiratis, Adel Al-Marzooqi, Sayed Ibrahim and Singapore Open champion, Shaker Al-Hassan completed the top 8 qualifiers who will advance into Round 3 finals.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong's Wicky Yeung, Eric Tseng and Cyrus Cheung also made improvements to take up 12th, 13th and 17th positions respectively while the best Kuwaiti, Basel Al-Anzi unfortunately managed only 25th.

2009 European Ranked No. 1, Osku Palermaa of Finland, 2009 Qatar Open champion, Remy Ong of Singapore and Indonesia's Ryan Lalisang have just arrived Dubai late today and will be making their attempts.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Dubai.

20th February, Dubai: ABF Tour TOC runner-up, Biboy Rivera of the Philippines shot the tournament's first perfect game during his third qualifying series to take up fourth in the Open standings of the 1st Dubai International Open on Saturday.

Having just clinched Day 10 highest series 734, the 35-year-old Filipino made his third attempt to roll 217, 300 and 179 for a 696 series to add to his first series of 649 for a nine-games aggregate of 2079.

His achievement put Rivera in fourth behind leader, Wu Siu Hong of Hong Kong, early leader Naif Oqab of UAE and Mahmood Al-Attar who occupied the top 3 spots with 2167, 2156 and 2113 respectively.

Rivera's last success was winning the 2007 ABF Tour Indonesia leg and since managed only a third and a fourth placing in the 2008 ABF Tour Hong Kong and Indonesia legs. The Filipino's biggest win was capturing the Masters gold medal at the 2006 World Men's Championship in Busan.

Behind Rivera came UAE's top contender, Hussain Al-Suwaidi in fifth followed by Adel Al-Marzooqi, Sayed Ibrahim and 2009 Singapore Open champion, Shaker Al-Hassan all from UAE making up the top 8 to advance into Round 3 finals.

UAE's Ibrahim Buhair will have to battle in Round 2 finals after being pushed down from eighth to ninth position. Ibrahim will lead the next nine qualifiers for the Round 2 finals with four more days remaining for qualifying.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Dubai.

19th February, Dubai: Hong Kong national bowlers made an impact on Day 9 of the qualifying rounds of the 1st Dubai International Open as Wu Siu Hong claimed the highest series award en-route to taking over the lead.

2009 Asian Ranked No. 1, Wu Siu Hong made his first two attempts on Thursday and only managed 648 and 640 together with his national team-mates after the team arrived Dubai. But the Hong Kong bowlers made their impact the following day.

Wu chalked up three superb series of 705, 763 and 699 for a nine-games aggregate of 2167 en-route to taking over the lead in the Open division qualifying leaderboard. The East Asian Games silver medalist also claimed the Day 9 highest series award with 763.

Hong Kong's AMF World Cup representative, Wicky Yeung also impressed with 624, 689 and 650 for a total of 1963 to take up 11th

position and will advance into Round 2 finals. Asian Youth Doubles gold medalist, Eric Tseng finished 13th with 1920.

2008 Asian Championship Doubles gold medalist, Cyrus Cheung just squeezed into 18th and last spot in the qualifying table with 1904 from 639, 580 and 685. Cheung will surely be able to better his second series of 580 to move up the standings.

Early leader, Naif Obaq settled for second spot with 2156 followed by Mahmood Al-Attar in third with 2113. Hussain Al-Suwaidi and Sayed Ibrahim made up the top 5 ahead of Adel Al-Marzooqi, Shaker Al-Hassan and Ibrahim Buhair in the top 8 who will advance into Round 3 finals.

Meanwhile, there were no changes in the Graded division with Faisal Khamis of UAE topping the table with 1911. Day 2 highest series achiever, Uella Marcial of the Philippines and Hashim Al-Hashimi of UAE took up second and third spots with 1895 and 1882 respectively.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Dubai.

17th February, Dubai: Local bowlers continue to dominate the qualifying rounds of the 1st Dunai International Open after Day 7 with Asian Indoor Games two gold medalist, Hussain Al-Suwaidi of UAE inching closer to leader, Naif Oqab.

Winner of the ABF Tour Kuwait and Thailand legs and twice second in the 6th Kuwait Open and 3rd Saudi Open, Hussain Al-Suwaidi of UAE almost claimed the Asian Ranking No. 1 for the second consecutive year but finished second to Hong Kong's Wu Siu Hong.

Hussain did finish off a good year by capturing the Asian Indoor Games doubles gold medal with Naif Obaq and helped UAE win the Team gold. The Emirati will be the firm favourite to land the Men's Open title after inching closer to leader, Naif.

Hussain chalked up a three-series total of 2068, 49 pins adrift Naif's 2117 with 697, 699 and 672. Hussain also claimed the Open division Day 6 high series award with his 661 attempt but has since made further improvements.

Adel Al-Marzooqi finished third with 2038 ahead of UAE season campaigner, Shaker Al-Hassan who took fourth spot with 2025. Youngster, Mahmood Al-Attar and Ibrahim Buhair finished fifth and sixth positions with 2020 and 1999.

Saeed Obaid, who clinched the Day 7 high series award with 699, amassed an aggregate score of 1996 to take up seventh position while Asian Indoor Games Team gold medalist, Sayed Ibrahim completed the top 8 who will advance to the Round 3 finals automatically.

Pakistan's Sultan Durrani, who claimed the Day 5 high series award with 673, head positions 9 to 18 qualifiers with 1969 with Fuaad Al-Mas and Hassan Al-Zaabi, both of UAE in 10th and 11th spots.

The top 8 qualifiers will automatically advance into Round 3 finals while positions 9 to 18 will qualify for Round 2 together with positions 19 to 24 reserved for local qualifiers. Qualifying ends Wednesday, February 24.

Photos courtesy of Emirates Bowling Federation.

12th February, Dubai: Asian Indoor Games triple gold medalist, Naif Oqab won the Day 1 highest 3-game series award en-route to topping the Open division qualifying table of the inaugural 1st Dubai International Open Tournament.

Naif Oqab, who chalked up his first 3-game series of 708 with 269, 214 and 225, stepped up for his award winning second 3-game series of 722 to win the Open division Day 1 highest series award.

The UAE southpaw started his second attempt with 213 then almost shot the tournament's first perfect game but had pin 7 standing stubornly to end the second game with 299. A 210 in the final game gave Naif a superb 722 series.

Despite managing only 687 in his third attempt on Friday, Naif amassed a three-series of 2117 to give him top spot in the qualifying table.

Naif's compatriot and Asian Indoor Games two gold medalist, Hussain Al-Suwaidi finished second in the table with 1932 from three attempts of 697, 616 and 619. Sayed Ibrahim took third spot, just 4 pins adrift on 1928.

Meanwhile, Filipino, Ronald Garcia also won himself the Graded division Day 1 highest series award with 589. Garcia also chalked up 578 and 547 in his two other attempts to land top spot in the Graded division qualifying table with 1714.

Fahad Falah Ghuloum of UAE took second position with 1712 while Mohammad Al-Noami also of UAE finished third with 1653. Mohammed Khalaf of Palestine and Abdulla Younus of UAE rounded up the top 5.

Qualifying will run through to February 24 in which the top 8 qualifiers in the Open division will get a bye into Round 3 Finals. Qualifiers from positions 9 to 18 together with 6 locals will have to battle it out in the Round 2 finals before cutting to 8 finishers to join the top 8 qualifiers in Round 3.

The 16 bowlers will play 8 games on February 25 where the field will again be cut to top 8 who will advance into Round 4 finals with pinfalls carried forward for another 8 games. The top 4 will make the cut for the stepladder finals.

Photos courtesy of Emirates Bowling Federation.