Plus Bowling in Vienna, Austria (Sep. 29 - Oct. 4, 2009)

Tim Friedrichs (pictured left), Germany, finished the fourth qualifying squad Wednesday afternoon at Plus Bowling in Vienna, Austria , with a double en route to overtake the lead in the 7th Columbia 300 Vienna Open.

Friedrichs tied previous leader Franz Hahn at 1286, an average of 214.33 for six games, but edged the Austrian due to the higher last game, 193 to 191.

Mirek Cifra, Czech Republic, and Zoltan Skorbrics, Hungary, slipped to third and fourth place with 1269 and 1248, respectively. Rainer Köpf, Germany, was second to Friedrichs in Squad 4 with 1246, good for fifth overall.

Click here to view more pictures. Courtesy of LarsMueller.com.

Jens Grieger, Germany (1246) and Stefan Schmid, Austria (1242) did not improve their high series and fell two sots to 6th and 7th place. Rounding out the top 8 is Alexander Gabrielian, Austria, with 1237.

Rene Bauer, Austria, checked in with 1233 to move into 9th place, while Dutch Phil Hulst (above right) finished with nine strikes in a row for 255 and a 1222 pinfall total, good for 14th place.

American Lucas Wiseman from USBC Communications department started his 7th game with the front seven and finished with 258, the highest game of the squad and just one pin short of the high game of the tournament. Austrian national team member Alexander Pittesser has the bragging right since his 259 from Squad 3.

The pictures shows Lucas Wiseman, center, with Austria's magic duo, European Doubles champions Thomas Tybl, left, and Thomas Gross, right.

Friedrichs teamed with Grieger (on the left) to lead Squad 4 also in the doubles competition. The Germans combined for 2446 pinfall total, an average of 203.83, but fell 21 pins short of the lead.

Karel Kutina and Mirek Cifra (right, l-r), Czech Republic, held on to the lead with 2467 and an average of 205.58. Thomas Gross and Walter Rieger, Austria, slipped to third place with 2434.

Qualifying continues on Wednesday with Squads 5 and 6 at 4 and 8pm.

The 7th Columbia 300 Vienna Open is the 11th stop of the 2009 European Bowling Tour and one of the Tour's "Majors". The tournament will be held from Tuesday Sept. 29 through Sunday Oct. 4, 2009 at the renovated 32-lane Plus Bowling in Vienna, Austria.

More than 340 players from 27 countries will compete for an increased total prize money of 68.130 Euro - 57.900 € in Singles and 10.230 € in Doubles. The singles champion will receive the 6.000 Euro top prize while the doubles winners will split 1.600.

Once again the qualifying for the Vienna Open finals is contested as a doubles tournament. Each duo rolls at least one six-game block. Unlimited re-entries with different partners are possible but each player can only cash once with the same partner.

The team with the highest total pinfall including handicap will be declared the winner (no finals will be played). The top 20 doubles will cash. Bigi Manico, Switzerland and Tanya Cuva (nee Petty) are the defending champion.

Qualifying runs from Tuesday through Saturday and ends with the ultimate one-game Desperado Squad on Saturday night Oct. 3 slated for 11.30 pm local time (GMT +1). Women receive 8 pins handicap each game, a standard on the European Bowling Tour

A total of 64 players will qualify for the Vienna Open finals on Sunday, Oct. 4:

• the top 52 players from the overall qualifying standings
• the first player each from Squad 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, who is not among the top 52 (total 6 players)
• and the top 6 from the Desperado Squad.

The top 8 qualifying leaders will bypass the first round of the finals.

The other 52 players will bowl 6 games starting from scratch to cut to the top 22, who will join the top qualifiers in Round Two.

Those 30 players will bowl another 6 games starting from scratch after which the field will be trimmed to the top 18, who will carry their pinfall forward into Round Three. After another 6-game block the top 4 with the highest 12-game total will advance to the stepladder finals.

The No. 4 seed meets the No. 3 in the opening match and the winner takes on the No. 2 seed for the right to bowl the top seed for the title, 100 ranking points and the 6.000 Euro top prize.

 

 

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Vienna Open Singles - Qualifying Standings after Squad 4 of 17

 

 

Vienna Open Doubles - Standings after Squad 4 of 17

 

 

Vienna Open Singles - Squad 4 Results

 

 

Vienna Open Doubles - Squad 4 Results