13th May, Manila: Topseed, Mike Chan of Hong was denied his first open title after losing to challenger, Sam Cooley of Australia, 201-231 and 148-195 in the Men's Open stepladder finals title match at Coronado Lanes, Starmall EDSA.

Chan, who won yesterday's Round 1 finals, continued where he left off to win the second round with 1819. JP Macatula of MBA-Timberpro was Philippines' best performer taking second spot with 1761, nine pins ahead of Cooley.

Cooley, who had a disastrous start in the earlier Round 2 finals, had almost given up hope of ever finishing in the top 10. But the Aussie eventually strung together three superb games of 245, 248 and 237 before firing a stunning 278 in his eighth and final game to squeeze into the top three.

Cooley easily dispatched second-seed Macatula, 259-152 in the semi-final stepladder match to meet Chan in the best-of-3 title match. The challenger took the first match 231-201 which saw Chan opening three frames.

While both had an open frame in the second match, Cooley managed to recover as Chan continued to struggle. Cooley went on to beat Chan, 195-148 to claim the title and pocket the top prize of 500,000 Philippine peso (approx. US$9,500).

Chan took home 250,000 peso while Macatula earned 125,000 peso. Mak and Tan picked 80,000 and 70,000 peso for finishing fourth and fifth positions respectively. Wu Siu Hong, who skipped Round 1 as one of the top six seeded qualifiers, managed only 17th position.

Meanwhile, topseed Liza Del Rosario was forced into a third and deciding match after winning one match each. Second-seed and challnger, Rachelle Leon had looked certain to win the first match when all she needed was to make her single 9-pin spare in her final frame.

But she missed the pin to hand the match to Del Rosario, 203-204. But Leon recovered to force the decider after she beat Del Rosario, 228-202 in the second match.

When Del Rosario rolled four strikes-in-a-row in the final match, Leon just could not respond. The topseed eventually struck out from frame 8 to win the final match, 258-194 and claimed her sixth Philippine Open Ladies' Masters title.

The champion last won the title back in 2007 when it was held at SM Bowling Center, Mall of Asia. Del Rosario won the top prize of 200,000 peso as champion. Leon, who settled for 100,000 peso, had earlier thrashed third-seed, Dyan Coronacion, 225-148 in the semi-finals to advance to the title match.

Coronacion pocketed 50,000 peso as second runner-up. Del Rosario, who won Round 1 finals yesterday, earned topseed for the stepladder finals after she topped the Round 2 finals again with 1742.

Leon finished in a distant second with 1641, 101 pins adrift while Coronacion made the stepladder finals with 1639 in third. Defending champion. Lara Posadas and top qualifier, Krizziah Tabora completed the top five with 1636 and 1630 respectively.

12th May, Manila: 2014 ABF Tour Indonesia champion, Mike Chan of Hong Kong won the Men's Open Round 1 finals by a narrow margin at the PBF 2nd Philippine International Open ahead of two Indian nationals, Shabbir Dhankot and Dhruv Sarda in second and third.

Chan gor off the block with a brilliant 259, only to lead Sarda by a single pin. Two Filipinos, Aui Padawan and Ivan Malig shared third with 255 with Praise Gahol of Philippines and Dhankot also registering big games for fourth and fifth.

Gahol added 235 in his second game to take over the lead while his compatriot, Padawan posted 224 to move into second spot as Chan managed only 205.

The lead changed hands again when Padawan rolled a superb 258 to take over the running with Chan recovering with 236 to take second spot. The two Indians could not keep pace with the trio but was able to post decent games to stay as close as they could.

Dhankot stormed home with 233, 247 and 227 to clinch second spot with 1773, just 8 pins adrift while his team-mate, Sarda also ended strongly to claim third position with 1761. Kayle Abad of PBA-Nobleland and Gahol completed the top five with 1737 and 1723 respectively.

Hassan Alshaikh of Saudi Arabia finished sixth with 1721 ahead of Raoul Miranda of Philippines in seventh positiomn with 1713. Guam's Arron Elliot did well to take up eighth with 1700 while Hong Kong's Michael Mak needed a big game of 266 to leapfrog into ninth with 1690.

2017 Hong Kong Open champion, Ammar Tarrad of Saudi Arabia, GJ Buyco of BTA-Prima and Ivan Malig of Philippines made the cut for the next round in 10th to 12th positions respectively.

Jonovan Neo of Singapore, who was in the top 12 most of the way, missed the cut 13 pins to finish 13th with 1666. Early pace-setter, Padawan fizzled off with three poor games to end in 17th.

9th May, Manila: 2017 World Championships Trios gold medallist, Wu Siu Hong made an impact during his qualifying rounds of the PBF 2nd Philippine International Open to take up second position in the Men's Open overseas pool.

Wu, who has already qualified in fifth position yesterday with 1416, improved his lower 3-games series of 659 with 720 to take his new 6-games tally to 1477 and looked set to top the standings.

But six-times ABF Tour winner, Hussain Alsuwaidi of UAE pipped him by 17 pins to take the lead with 1494. A second-place finish will ensure the Hong Kong national bowler a bye and automatically advance to Round 2 finals.

2006 Doha Asian Games Doubles gold medallist, Hassan Alshaikh of Saudi Arabia, who was the overnight leader, slipped behind Wu in third with 1468.

Meanwhile, there were no changes in the Ladies' Open division with reigning 2017 QubicaAMF World Cup champion, Krizziah Tabora leading the local pool with 1515. Alexis Sy and Rachelle Leon made up the top 3 local qualifiers earning a bye with 1433 and 1416.

Philippine-born Uella Marcial of UAE topped the overseas pool with 1252 followed by Malaysia's Linda Grzybowska in second with 1164. Mades Arles headed the mixed pool with 1343.

Three local qualifiers positioned 4 to 5, three overseas qualifiers positioned 4 to 6, nine qualifiers from the mixed pool and the top 2 qualifiers from the one-game desperado squad will contest the Round 1 finals on May 12.

The top 12 finishers from the Men's Open Round 1 will be joined by the six seeded qualifiers (the top 3 from local pool and the top 3 from overseas pool) for another 8-games in Round 2 finals on May 13.