Multiple German national champion Achim Grabowski (left) lead Squad 8 in the 6th Columbia 300 Vienna Open with 1313 six-game pinfall and teamed with multiple Austria national champion Thomas Gross (right) to lead the squad in Doubles with 2590. Gross added 1277 which helped the duo to leap into second place in the Doubles standings.

The bowling center proprietor from Duisburg, who will host the European Champions Cup later this month, had high games of 259 and 245 to move into sixth place in the overall qualifying standings in Singles. He is with compatriot Marcus Zuber, who shot 1313 in the seventh squad earlier today, but had the lower last game, 187 to Zuber's 269.

Alexander Rauscher, Austria, held on to the lead with 1367 pinfall total and an average of 227.83. His fellow countryman Michael Loos is second with 1346, with Uwe Tscharke, Germany, in third (1332) and Michael Mayer, Austria, in fourth (1326).

Only the top six players have reached the 1300-plateau thus far.

Dutch Michael Kok move into 7th place with 1282, while Bo Winther slipped to 8th with 1279. Frederik Ohrgaard, both Denmark, is 9th with 1277. Gross is in 10th place due to the lower last game, 179 to 203.

Tscharke/Mayer (left to right) remained unchallenged atop the Doubles leaderboard with 2658 pinfall total and an average of 221.50.

Grabowski/Gross are second with 2590 (215.83). Chris Van Damme (1269), Belgium and Nicole Sanders (1187), Netherlands, moved into third place with 2504. Swedes Mikael Larsson (1262) and Martin Paulsson (1224) leaped into fourth place with 2486.

Qualifying continues Thursday with Squad 9 at 8pm. Among the players will be Australians Jason Belmonte and Jason Walsh, former world champions Martin Larsen and Robert Andersson, Sweden as well as Formula One star Robert Kubica from Poland.

The Vienna Open, the 14th stop of the 2008 European Bowling Tour and one of the Tour's "Major", will be held from Sep. 30 - Oct. 5, in Vienna, Austria.

More than 290 players will compete for total prize money of 65.630 Euro - 55.400 € in Singles and 10.230 € in Doubles. The singles champion will receive the 6.000 € top prize while the doubles winners will split 1.600 €.

In last year's title match, Swede Dennis Eklund (pictured right) defeated Yoan Alix, France, 235-199, en route to win his first EBT title. Tina Hulsch, Germany, won the women's rankings.

Once again the qualifying for the Vienna Open finals is contested as a doubles tournament. Each duo rolls at least one six-game block. Unlimited re-entries with different partners are possible but each player can only cash once with the same partner.

The team with the highest total pinfall including handicap will be declared the winner (no finals will be played). The top 20 doubles will cash.

Stuart Williams, England, and Germany's Tina Hulsch are the defending champions (pictured left).

Qualifying runs from Tuesday through Saturday and ends with the ultimate one-game Desperado Squad on Saturday night Oct. 4 slated for 11.30 pm local time (GMT +1).


A total of 64 players from the qualifying will advance to the finals starting on Sunday, Oct. 5 at 8am:

• The top 8 players with the highest six-game qualifying result will earn one bye and will be seeded 1-8 in the match play Round of 32
• players positioned 9th to 52nd after qualifying
• the six leaders of Squads 1-6 and
• the top 6 from the Desperado Squad.

All but the top 8 qualifiers (56 players overall) will bowl 6 games starting from scratch to cut to the top 24. Those 24 will be seeded 9-32 in the match play Round of 32.

The Round of 32, 16 and 8 will feature single-elimination match play in best-of-three games format. The highest seeded player bowls the lowest seeded player, the second-highest seeded player vs. the second-lowest seeded player, etc.

The semifinals (No. 1 vs. No. 4 and No. 2 vs. No. 3) and the championship match will be decided in one game. A major on the European Bowling Tour, the top 50 men and the top 50 women will receive double ranking points.

For more information on the 6th Columbia 300 Vienna Open click here.