Singapore rules the lanes
25th July, Jakarta: Singapore women ruled the lanes at the 9th Indonesia International Open with four advancing into the stepladder finals and New Hui Fen clinching her first international crown in the Women's Open Masters stepladder finals. Singapore women had dominated the finals from yesterday's stage 1 with all nine advancing into today's stage 2 finals. New Hui Fen led from start to finish ending the stage with 2145, 18 pins ahead of team-mate and stage 1 leader, Cherie Tan in second with 2127.
Hong Kong Open champion Shayna Ng finished third with 2068 while Fok Ka Wai took fourth spot to qualify for the stepladder finals. ABF Tour Hong Kong leg champion, Tannya Roumimper of Indonesia and Wendy Chai of Malaysia made the cut in fifth and sixth.
Tannya won the Women's Open first stepadder match by deating Ka Wai and Wendy, 210-158-199 to face No. 2 seed, Cherie Tan and No. 3 seed, Shayna Ng in the second match. The Indonesian was on a roll knocking out her opponents, 223-185-201 to challenge Hui Fen.
New Hui Fen with the champion's trophies
Hui Fen started with a strike but a single pin miss in the second frame allowed Tannya to take a small lead. The top seed reversed the advantage after stringing together three strikes-in-a-row from frame 5.
A split in the ninth frame appeared to have swung the advantage back to Tannya especially when the Indonesian struck out for a socre of 187. But Hui Fen kept her cool to spare and struck in her final throw for the victory with 192.
"I expected a tight match in the finals after seeing Tannya beating me team-mates in the other two matches," said the 19-year-old Hui Fen, who won two gold medals each at the 2010 Asian Youth Championships and 2009 Asian Youth Games.
"And that miss didn't helped too but I managed to get my composure back and fought back for this victory. It's slowly sinking in that I've won my first international open title."
Hui Fen became the second Singaporean to win the Women's title. Bernice Lim, who ended in 18th position in the second stage, won it in 2007. Geraldine Ng finished ninth, Jazreel Tan 13th and Jasmine Yeong-Nathan 15th.
Meanwhile, Yannaphon Larpapharat of Thailand captured his second open title this year with a slender one pin victory over challenger, Basel Al Anzi of Kuwait, 192-191 in the deciding match.
Basel has edged Yannaphon, 208-199 after striking out in his final frame to force a sudden death second match. Basel had earlier, snatched a 218-211-214 win over No. 2 seed, Shaker Al Hassan of UAE and team-mate, Mohamed Al Zaidan in the second match.
Mohamed Al Zaidan beat fourth seed, Zulmazran Zulkifli of Malaysia and fifth seed, Surasak Manuwong of Thailand, 245-191-231 to advance into the next match.
"I should have closed out my opponent in the first match and not go into the second match but I just couldn't get anymore connecting strikes," said the Yannaphon, who ended a five year title drought by capturing the Macau China Open early this month.
Photos by Terence Yaw in Jakarta.