Perttu Jussila (pictured left) of Finland won the seven-day qualifying of the 9th Istanbul Bowling Open en route to lead a field of 48 players, 39 men and 9 women, into Sunday's finals at Timeout Bowling Center in Istanbul, Turkey.

Jussila, a member of the Finnish squad that won the prestigious Team gold medal at the 2013 World Championships, toppled 1434 pins, an average of 239 for six games, in Friday's Squad 14 to lead a field of 152 players from 18 countries.

Denmark's Kamilla Kjeldsen (above right), who won her first European Bowling Tour title earlier this season in Wroclaw, Poland, missed the top spot by mere nine pins. The three-time EBT Masters winner rolled a 1377 series including a 279 game in Squad 18, an average of 229.50, and added 48 pins handicap to finish qualifying in second place with 1425.

Kjeldsen was the best of 33 women in the field and one of nine, who survived the first cut. As all squad leaders, Kjeldsen pocketed a 300 Euro bonus.

Another four players surpassed the 1400-mark this week. Martin Paulsson (left) of Sweden was third with 1406 and was followed by Finns Jari Ratia and Sanna Pasanen in fourth and fifth place with 1403 and 1402, respectively.

Tolga ÅžiÅŸmanoÄŸullar (right), who rolled a 1401 series in the second of twenty qualifying squads, was the best bowler from the host country in sixth place. Seventh place belonged to Russian national team member Nikita Koshelev at 1382.

Jarmo Ahokas of Finland was second to Kjeldsen in Squad 18 with 1372 (228.67) en route to land in eighth place. The top 8 received three byes for the finals.

John Wells (left) of England, who led Squad 19 with 1364, moved into 13th place. Qualifiers 9-18 got two byes.

Marjo Pöntinen (right) and two-time PBA Player of the Year, Mika Koivuniemi (below right), Finland led Squad 20 and 17 on Saturday with 1332 and 1325 to finish qualifying in 24th and 28th place. Qualifiers 19-28 received a first-round bye.

Marek Talpa of Czech Republic, who won his first EBT title in the Brunswick Italia Challenge last season, hit the cutoff number for 38th place with 1307 or an average of 217.83.

The top 38 qualifiers will be joined by another ten players in the finals, who qualified through Early Bird squads and the two Desperado Squads.

The 9th Istanbul Bowling Open will be held from Saturday, May 3, through Sunday, May 11, at 20-lane Timeout Bowling Center in Istanbul, Turkey. The tournament is the sixth stop of the 2014 European Bowling Tour season and the second of six EBT "gold" tournaments, the second-highest of four categories.

Players will compete for total prize money of 60.000 Euro with 7.000 Euro going to the winner, 5.000 to the runner-up and 1.400 and 3.250 apiece to the third and fourth place finisher, respectively. Low to cash is 48th place worth 500 Euro.

Qualifying ran from May 3-10. Women receive 8 pins handicap each game (maximum score is 300), a standard on the European Bowling Tour.

Total 48 players - the top 38 qualifiers, two players of a separate leaderboard from Squads 1-4 plus the two players of Desperado Squad 1 and six players of Desperado Squad 2 - advanced to the finals on Sunday, May 11.

The top eight qualifiers earned three byes, qualifiers 9-18 got two byes, and qualifiers 19-28 received a first-round bye.

The first five rounds of the final consist of four games from scratch. The field will be trimmed to 38, 28, 18, 8 and then four players, who will determine the champion in head-to-head matches with the two-game total determining the winner.

The top-seeded player after Round 5 bowls No. 4 seed and No. 2 takes on No. 3 in the semifinals. The winners advance to the title match while the losers will be seeded third and fourth according to their seeding after Round 5.

The 2014 European Bowling Tour features 20 tournaments in 14 countries. In its 15th season, the EBT consists of two Platinum, six Gold, three Silver and nine Satellite tournaments. The total prize fund exceeds one million Euro.

The top 50 men and the top 50 women in each event receive ranking points. Those points will be tabulated throughout the season to determine the top 12 men and top 12 women, who will compete in the eighth EBT Masters July 6, 2015 in Asti, Italy.