It's down to eight in men's finals at Word Singles Championships

    09/25/12

    2012 WSC

    Five PBA champions including Team USA's Tommy Jones and Chris Barnes advance to the Quarterfinals on Tuesday

    201112PBA04ChrisBarnes3.jpg2012EBT04ZulmazranZulkifli.jpgFive PBA champions including 13-time titlists Tommy Jones and Chris Barnes, three-time PBA champion Osku Palermaa of Finland and one-time winners Andrés Gómez of Colombia and Stuart Williams of England bowled their way into the quarterfinals at the World Singles Championships in Cyprus.

    Barnes (pictured left), seeded fifth, won a high-scoring encounter in the Round of 16 against Malaysia's Zulmazran Zulkifli (right), three-games-to-two. Both players average over 250 for five games. Zulkifli won the first and third game, 279-244 and 278-258. Barnes leveled the match with wins in games two and four, 228-207 and 277-256.

    Barnes, the reigning WTBA World Champion in Masters match play, won the deciding fifth game, 259-236, to advance. He will meet Khaled Al-Dossari of Qatar, seeded 13th, who swept No. 4 seed, Matt Miller of England, 3-0.

    201112PBATommyJones.jpg2012EBT04StuartWilliams.jpgBarnes' team mate Tommy Jones (left), the No. 2 seed, sidelined Thomas Larsen of Denmark, 3-0, including a high-scoring opening game, 267-243. Jones takes on fellow PBAer Stuart Williams (right), who made quick work of No. 7 Michael Mak of Hong Kong, 3-0, behind games of 259, 228 and 243.

    2011 European Champions Cup winner Thomas Gross of Austria and Former World and European champion Tore Torgersen of Norway, who won their five-game matches in the Round of 24, forced No. 1 seed Syafiq Ridhwan of Malaysia and No. 3 seed Martin Paulsson of Sweden into another marathon. This time, however, Gross and Torgersen were eliminated, 3-2.

    2012EBT04SyafiqRidhwan.jpg201112PBAAndresGomez.jpgRidhwan (left) started his match against Torgersen with a huge 277 game, but the Norwegian countered with 288 and 277 (to 258) to lead after three games, 2-1. The Malaysian closed out the match with 238 and 246, while Torgersen managed two 190s only.

    Gross was up 2-1 after three but fell two pins short of the victory in game four, 205-203. Paulsson won the fifth game and the match, 227-204, and took revenge for his compatriot Dennis Eklund, who fell to Gross in the Round of 24.

    Ridhwan takes on Andrés Gómez (right), who easily defeated Kuwait's Mohammed Kamel in three games, 267-164, 236-175 and 224-203.

    2012WSCMartinPaulsson.jpg2012EBT13OskuPalermaa.jpgPaulsson (left), reigning World Champion in Doubles and the 2011 European Champion in Masters match play, clashes with Osku Palermaa (right). The two-hander used games of 236, 245 and 267 to defeat Oliver Leroy of Belgium, 3-0.

    The remaining eight players return on Tuesday for the quarterfinals starting at 9 a.m. local time (GMT +3).

    The 71 men from 40 countries were split into four squads to bowl two blocks of six games over four days on the 41 feet WTBA Montreal oil pattern (Lane Map Guide) before the cut to the top 24 players who advanced to the finals Sept. 24 and 25.

    The top 24 players bowl for the title in single-elimination match-play bracket. The top eight qualifiers receive one bye. In case of a tie in the standings for any position in the qualifying, the higher positioned will be the player with the highest last game (second last game, etc.). All qualifying pin fall is dropped.

    The first three rounds of the finals feature best-of-five games match play until the field is trimmed to the top four. The semifinal matches and the championship match are one-game matches.

    In each match of the final, the highest seeded player decides which player starts to play in the first game. For the first three rounds the starting player will change after each game. In case of a tie in any game, a one ball roll-off will be played and repeated until the tie is broken.

    The field will be trimmed to 16, 8, 4 and then two players who will determine the champion in the gold medal match. The semifinal losers will share the bronze medal.

    Free live streaming will be provided of the entire championships. To view the live streaming click here.

     


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    Men's Finals - Quarterfinal Match-ups


    Best-of-five games bracket format; winners advance, losers eliminated

     


    Men's Finals - Round of 16


    Best-of-five games bracket format; winners advance, losers eliminated

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