Singaporean in contention for ladies’ title

12th October, Taipei: Top qualifier, Geraldine Ng put up a superb performance in the Ladies' Open Masters first block finals of the 9th Chinese Taipei International Open to finish second to Malaysia's Sharon Koh.  

The 43rd AMF World Cup bound, Sharon Koh grabbed the lead after the second game to lead throughout the 8-game first block and finishing with a comfortable 156 pins margin. Singapore's Geraldine Ng, who was in the top 5 in the early stages, posted 221 and 243 to move into second spot after six games and trailed the leader by 48 pins.

Geraldine made an effort to close the gap but found the Malaysian a bit too strong and had to settle for second despite another 217 and 221 in her final two games. Geraldine totaled 1671 to Sharon's 1827.

Indonesia Open champion, Bernice Lim would have been up closer to the leaders had it not been the two low games of 150 in the first game and a 152 in the seventh game putting her on 10th with 1544.

  Teo Li Ying and Gina Lim ended the block in 16th and 17th on 1479 and 1471 respectively leaving the duo a tougher task in tomorrow's second block. Nicole Wong could only manage a 27th place finished on 1405.

Hong Kong's Chan Shuk Han, who was trailing Sharon most of the way in second, finished third with 1638 ahead of Taipei's Pan Yu-Fen and defending champion, Chien Hsiu-Lan rounding up the top 5.

The men will take to the lanes for their first block later and the ladies will continue their second block tomorrow morning. The top 6 at the end of the two blocks will make the stepladder finals.

  Detailed scores: Ladies' Open 1stBlk Finals | Photo Album.Photos by Sidney Tung, MTBC.