Multiple Austrian champion Thomas Gross (left), rolled a 732 three-game series in Final Round Two, the highest series of the day thus far in the finals of the 1st Maribor Open Strike Tournament in Slovenia.

Gross had back-to-back 250s and finished with 217 to lead Mathias Årup (right) by one pin. The Swede started with 279-255 and closed out his series with 197 for 731.

Robert Kendall from England was next with 724 including a 279 in the third game. Jarmo Ahokas, Finland, was the fourth player, who reached the 1400-plateau behind games of 224, 246 and 235 and a 705 total.

Jari Ratia (left), Finland, and Claudio Ajola, Italy, tied for 14th place with 635 and an average of 211.67. The multiple European champion from Finland advanced thanks to the higher last game, 233 to 228.

Gross' wife Ivonne Gross, the sole woman in the finals, missed the cut by seven pins in 17th place with 628. She finished 31st in the overall standings and cashed 800 Euro.

A total of 56 players qualified for the finals of the 1st Maribor Open Strike Tournament on Sunday, Sep. 16 at Strike Bowling Center in Maribor, Slovenia: The top 52 in the overall qualifying standings and the top 4 Desperados.
Qualifiers 1-14 earned two byes and will earn at least 1.200 Euro. Qualifiers 15-28 bypassed the first round which guarantees them 800 Euro. The top 14 from Final Round One advanced and met qualifiers 15-28 in Final Round Two. The top 14 after another three games from scratch will meet the top 14 qualifiers in Round #3.

The field will be trimmed to 16, 8 and then 4 in during rounds 3 to 5 (3-game series with the pinfall being carried forward from Round 3 on). The four remaining players will bowl for the title and the 8.000 Euro top prize in a traditional stepladder format based on the standings after Round #5: No. 4 bowls No. 3, the winner meets No. 2 and the winner bowls No. 1 for the title.

Bowlingdigital will cover the event live from Maribor all the way through to the finals on Sunday, September 16. The four-player stepladder finals will be broadcasted live on Slovenian television in a two-hour show from Strike Bowling Center.