41 men and 7 women advance to the finals on Friday and Saturday

Swede Martin Larsen (pictured left) remained unchallenged in the final two squads to win the qualifying in the 9th Qatar International Open at Qatar Bowling Center in Doha, Qatar with a 119-pin cushion.

The 3-time World Champion had a 1540 six-game series, an average of 256.67, in the 14th qualifying squad including games of 288, 245, 278, 247, 253 and 229. The Swede outaveraged his nearest competitor, Asian ranking leader Hussain Al-Suwaidi (right) by almost 20 pins.

Al-Suwaidi was second with 1421. His compatriot Naif Oqab led Squad 15 with 1400 improving his highest total by mere six pins to remain in third place in the overall standings.

Places 4 and 5 belonged to Danish bowlers. Jimmy Mortensen was 4th with 1390 followed by 3-time European Bowling Tour ranking champion Britt Brøndsted, who was 5th with 1384 including 48 pins handicap, a standard for women on the European Bowling Tour. Brøndsted was the best of 7 women who made the cut out of total of 15 women in the 139-player field.

Rounding out the top 6, who earned two byes for the finals, was reigning EBT Masters champ Paul Moor, England, with 1374.

QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup champion Caroline Lagrange (left), Canada, waited until the very last moment to qualify as she led Squad 16 with 1328 including handicap to land in 18th place. The only other player from this squad, who made the cut was Larsen's team mate and fellow World Champion Robert Andersson (right), who finished in 35th place with 1300.

Aussie George Frilingos hit the cutoff number for 38th place with 1295 (215.83).

Also advancing from a separate qualifying list in Squads 3 and 4 were Mansoor Al-Awamy, who rolled the first of two 300 games (Tim Mack, USA, was the other) and compatriot Mubarak Al-Muraikhi, both Qatar as well as Denmark's Jesper Agerbo.

Advancing from a separate qualifying list in Squads 1 and 2 were Andrew Frawley, Australia, Mohamed Al-Rajebah, Kuwait and Yousif Falah, Bahrain.

The final four spots went to the top 4 from the Desperado Squad: Khaled Al-Doseri, Qatar (230), Arif Mursel, Bahrain (226), Salem Al-Marzouqi, Qatar (224) and Sayed Ibrahim, UAE (223).

The 9th Qatar Open is the 15th and final event on the 2009 European Bowling Tour and one of the Tour's "Major's". The EBT has announced that the 2010 edition will be upgraded to "Platinum", the highest status of the Tour besides Gold, Silver and Satellite.

A total of 48 players - the top 38 qualifiers and the top 3 each from Dec. 12 and 13 squads plus the top 4 from the Desperado Squad - advance to the finals on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 18-19, 2009.

The top 6 qualifiers will bypass the first two rounds, while places 7-12 will receive one bye. The other 36 players will bowl six games from scratch to cut to the top 18. Those 18 plus qualifiers 7-12 will bowl six games from scratch. The top 10 will advance and join the top six qualifiers in Round 3.

Those 16 will bowl six games from scratch to cut to the top 8, who will bowl another six games with the pinfall from Round 3 being carried forward. The top 4 will advance to the championship round. All matches over two games total pinfall.

No. 1 bowls No. 4 and No. 2 meets No. 3. The winners will advance to the championship match to bowl for the title and the 30.000 Euro top prize (approx. 43,865 U.S. Dollar). The runner-up will be consoled with 15.000 Euro.

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2009 Qatar Open - Standings after Qualifying

The top 38 qualifiers and the top 3 each from Dec. 13 (places 39-41) and 12 (places 42-44) squads plus the top 4 from the Desperado Squad (places 45-48) advance to the finals.

300 games (2) - Mansoor Al-Awamy, Qatar; Tim Mack United States.