Mika Koivuniemi (pictured left) of Finland survived three one-game eliminator rounds Sunday afternoon at Dream-Bowl Palace in Munich, Germany, en route to win his 10th European Bowling Tour title in the Track Dream-Bowl Palace Open and the 7.000 Euro top prize. He is the first two-time winner this season.

Pictured right are the top 4 with tournament organizer Manuel Mrosek, left, and Ebonite's Mike Quitter, right.

Koivuniemi, who owns 13 career PBA Tour titles in the United States including the 2000 USBC Masters, 2001 U.S. Open and 2011 Tournament of Champions, led the last four game round of the finals with 940 to hold a 39 pin lead heading into the first of three eliminator rounds.

Joining the two-time PBA Player of the Year (2003-04 and 2010-11) were Richard Teece, England (901), Joonas Jehkinen, Finland (894), and Tobias Börding, Germany (879). The lowest-scoring player (total pins) after each round was eliminated.

Koivuniemi started with a 179 game and Jehkinen (204) and Teece (187) narrowed the gap. Börding (right; 190) finished 19 pins behind Teece and was eliminated and received 2.200 Euro for fourth place.

Leading by 21 pins, Koivuniemi started the second round with a five-bagger to pull away with 226. Jehkinen closed out for 200 and Teece (left), who had 157, was eliminated to finish third, worth 3.000 Euro.

Trailing by 47 pins, Jehkinen (right) was unable to put any pressure on Koivuniemi and fell to the long-time Finnish national team member in the last eliminator round, 197-181 and 1542-1479. Defending champion Jehkinen, who won his first EBT title in the 2013 Track Dream-Bowl Palace Open, earned 5.000 Euro for second place.

Koivuniemi became just the fourth player in the 15-year history of the European Bowling Tour to win 10 titles. Osku Palermaa, Finland, and Paul Moor, England, are tied for first place with record 13 titles. Gery Verbruggen, Belgium, is third with 11 titles.

L-R Börding (4th), Jehkinen (2nd), champion Koivuniemi, Teece (3rd) and tournament organizer Manuel Mrosek. Click image to enlarge.

Koivuniemi's victory broke a tie for fourth place with Dominic Barrett, England, who won his 9th title in last week's San Marino Open to sit in fifth place on the all-time EBT title list.

The 5th Track Dream-Bowl Palace Open by Erdinger is the 11th stop of the 2014 European Bowling Tour and the fourth out of six EBT "Gold" tournaments this season. The tournament will be held July 19-27 at 52-lane Dream-Bowl Palace in Unterföhring near Munich, Germany.

The DBP Track Open offers total prize fund of 70.000 Euro with 7.000 Euro going to the winner, 5.000 to the runner-up, and 3.000 and 2.000 Euro to the third and fourth place finisher, respectively. Low to cash is 64th place for 600 Euro.

The tournament features a 40-feet lane conditioning pattern with 24.885 ml volume oil total.

Qualifying (six-game series, unlimited re-entries) ran from Saturday July 19, through Saturday, July 26. Women received 8 pins handicap each game throughout the entire tournament, a standard for women on the European Bowling Tour.

A total of 64 players advanced to the finals on Sunday, July 27 including the top 50 from the overall qualifying standings plus the top 6 from Squads 1-7, the top 4 from the Desperado Squad and the top 4 from a "High-Low" list (lowest and highest game added together; additional 10,-€ per squad). The top 8 qualifiers earned two byes, while qualifiers 9-16 received a first-round bye.

Three four-game rounds, each starting from scratch, trimmed the field to 36, 16 and then four players, who carried forward their third-round pinfall total into the eliminator-format finals featuring three one-game rounds.

All four players bowled the opening game, with the lowest-scoring player after five games being eliminated. In the two rounds to follow, the same "low man out" format applied. The last man standing was declared the champion.

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 at Bowling Chamartín in Madrid, Spain, immediately following the III Brunswick Madrid Challenge.

The European Bowling Tour takes a four-week break and resumes with the Brunswick Etna Open, a EBT Satellite event, which will be held Aug. 30 - Sept. 9 at Bowling La Plaja in Catania, Italy.