Malaysians Wendy Chai and Alex Liew got off to a great start into the 2007 bowling season with victory in the Asian Bowling Federation Tour Tournament of Champions at Jaya Ancol Bowl in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Chai, seeded 7th, rolled games of 217, 224 and 248 in the single-elimination one-game finals to cruise to her second ToC title after winning the 2004 ABF Tour finals.

Chai sidelined her team mate Siti Safiyah in the quarterfinal, then ousted No. 1 seed Angkana Netrviseth from Thailand before she defeated No. 2 seed, Kim Eun Jung, Korea, 248-210, in the title match.

On the men's side, Liew, the No. 6 seed, ousted the top 3 players from the prelims on his way to the title. He defeated No. 3 Chester King, Philippines, 232-172, and No. 2 Abdulla Al Qattan, Qatar, 200-193, to meet top-seeded Jason Belmonte in the title match.

Belmonte, who led the tournament with a 217 average, advanced to the final with games of 192 and 188. A 165 score sealed Belmonte's fate and Liew easily won the title with 216. Picture courtesy of ABF Tour/Daniel Winardi.

Jason Belmonte from Australia and Thailand's Angkana Netrviseth earned the No. 1 seed in the men's and women's single-elimination match play finals in the Asian Bowling Federation Tour Tournament of Champions at Jaya Ancol Bowl in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Belmonte averaged 224 on the second day and won five of his seven matches to lead the 16 men with 3345 pinfall total, a 217.00 average for 15 games. Abdulla Al Qattan, Qatar, was 44 pins behind in second place. First-block leader Chester King, Philippines, was third at 3299.

Places 4-6 belonged to Malaysians Mohd Noer Said, Zulmazran Zulkifli and Alex Liew. Rounding out the top 8 were Wu Siu Hong, Hong Kong, and Fadhel Al Mousawi, Kuwait.

Netrviseth averaged 220.43 for the day and led the 16 women with 3377 total including 110 bonus pins (10 pins bonus per win), an average of 217.80 and .80 higher than Belmonte's average. Kim Eun Jung was second with 3286, while yesterday's leader, local favorite Putty Armein, slipped to third at 3201.

Next were Malaysians Siti Safiyah and Shalin Zulkifli, with Liza Clutario, Philippines, in sixth and Wendy Chai, Malaysia, in seventh place. Kang Hyun Jin, Korea, took the eighth and final qualifying spot.

Chester King of the Philippines in the men's division and local favorite Putty Armein of Indonesia in the women's division took the lead after the first block of match play in the 2006 Asian Bowling Federation Tour Tournament of Champions.

King averaged 225.25 and won all eight games (10 pins bonus per win) to lead the 16-men field with 1858 pinfall total. Mubarak Al Muraikhi and Abdulla Al Qattan, both of Qatar, sit in second and third place with 1785 and 1751.

Armein, the current Asian ranking leader, delighted her fans with a 218 average and won all but one match to lead after day one with 1814 pinfall total. Angkana Netrviseth, Thailand, is 30 pins behind in second place with Korean Kim Eun Jung in third at 1723.

The 16 men and 16 women will return on Sunday for the second block of eight games to cut to the top 8 men and the top 8 women for the single-elimination finals on Monday.