28th February, Doha: The return of the ABF Tour back to Qatar since 2006 witnessed national youth and debutant, Ghanim Aboujassoum winning the opening leg of the ABF Tour Qatar 2015 after defeating Khaled Al Dubyyan of Kuwait, 193-161 in the final match.
The champion sailed past Mohammed Al Saud of Saudi Arabia, 217-160 in the first semi-final match to advance to the finals while Khaled posted the highest game of 277 to beat Naif Oqab of UAE in the other semi to face Ghanim.
Both the title contenders started off cautiously alternating strike and spares in the first three frames. A seemingly perfect pocket shot from Khaled gave him a 7-10 split in the fourth frame and then failed to spare his fifth frame.
Ghanim just made sure he picked up his spares despite not being able to roll a strike. Khaled recovered with a double in the sixth and seventh frame and had a chance to finish strongly to snatch victory, but left a solid pin 10 which he again failed to convert into a spare.
Opening leg champion, Ghanim Aboujassoum
The 16-year-old Qatari marked all his remaining frames to beat Khaled, 193-161 for his first-ever tour title. The last time a Qatari won an ABF Tour title was back in 2010 in which Mansour Al Hajri emerged champion in Cairo Egypt.
The champion defeated Jassem Al Saqer of Kuwait, 229-167 in the second round to advance to the semi-finals. He also posted a stunning 258-219 victory over compatriot, Mohammed Al-Merekhi in his opening round.
Khaled edged Hazeem Al-Muraikhi of Qatar, 236-226 in Round 2 to advance to the semi-finals and dispatched Yousif Falah of Bahrain, 197-167 in the first round. First runner-up of the H.H. Emir Cup 2015, Khaled Al-Dossari of Qatar was eliminated, 190-221 by Jassem Al Saqer in the first round.
Mr Abdul Salam, President of Qatar Bowling Federation presented the trophy and a cash prize of US$1,000 to the champion. Prizes will be awarded only to the champion starting from this year.
This year's ABF Tour consist of ten stops. Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Egypt, UAE and Saudi are the six legs in the Middle East while Thailand, Macau, Hong Kong and Indonesia are the four legs in East and South East Asia.
Ghanim receiving the trophy from Mr Salam
The next stop will be the ABF Tour Bahrain 2015 which will be held on March 8, a day after the conclusion of the PBA-WBT #9 13th Kingdom of Bahrain Open from March 2 to 7, 2015.
Bowlers will earn ranking points from each of the legs they contest and the top 16 men and top 16 women at the end of the final leg, will qualify for the Tournament of Champions.
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 Doha, Qatar.
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