A total of 40 players, 39 from Russia and one from Serbia, took to he lanes on Tuesday at B-35 Bowling Center in Pavlovskiy Posad, Russia, to kick off the 1st Pavlovskiy Posad Open, an European Bowling Tour event.

Ivan Semenov (pictured left) had games of 225, 279, 246, 202, 216 and 215 in Squad 3 to set the pace with 1383 six-game total and an average of 230.50. Photo courtesy of bowling.ru.

Roman Starchenkov, who led the opening squad with 1334 including high games of 250, 249 and 247, sits in second place with Oleg Chumak in third, who totaled 1315 in Squad 3.

Viktor Krasavkin, who led Squad 2 with 1257, improved his score to 1281 in Squad 3 to finish day one qualifying in fourth place. Polina Kosyakova was the best of seven women in fifth place with 1250 including 48 pins women's handicap.

Slavolyub Milkovich, Serbia, roller coasted his way to 22nd place with 1110 after alternating three 200-plus games with two sub-170s and a low game of 139.

The Pavlovskiy Posad Open is a newcomer on the European Bowling Tour and the first tournament in Russia in the 11-year history of the Tour. The 1st Pavlovskiy Posad Open will be held from Sept. 14-19, 2010 at B-35 Bowling Center, a 14-laner in Pavlovskiy Posad, a city of approx. 65,000 people some 70 kilometers East of Russia's capital city of Moscow.

The tournament offers total prize fund of 23.000 Euro with 4.500 Euro going to the winner. Women receive 8 pins handicap each game, a standard for women on the European Bowling Tour

The tournament is the 14th stop of the 2010 European Bowling Tour and one of the Tour's "Satellite" tournaments. 50 ranking points are on the line for the winner of the men's and women's rankings in Pavlovskiy Posad, respectively.

Since the Ankara Open and the Austria Challenge have been cancelled, the 2010 EBT Tour consists of 19 events - 2 EBT Platinum tournament (formerly Premier), 6 EBT Gold tournaments (formerly Major), 7 EBT Silver tournaments (formerly Challenger) and 4 EBT Satellite tournaments (new category).

The Pavlovskiy Posad Open is the first sanctioned international bowling tournament in Russia since the Men's European Championships in Moscow in 2005. The organizers want to prove that it is possible to run international tournaments not only in the country's capital and bigger cities but also in small towns such as Pavlovskiy Posad.

110 players from 6 countries have registered for the event so far but the organizers are expecting are larger outcome due to the many local bowlers who haven't registered yet. The organizers blamed the massive wildfires that raged recently across central and western Russia as a reason for the small number of international entries.

The tournament has already attracted the interest of the local media. TV journalists have already visited B-35 Bowling Center on the first day and will return on Sunday for the finals.

Qualifying runs from Tuesday, Sept. 14th through Saturday, Sept. 18th. All players must bowl at least one six-game series. A total of 48 players will advance to the finals on Sunday, Sept. 19th: The top 44 players from the overall qualifying standings plus the top 4 of the Desperado Squad.

The top 6 qualifiers earn two byes, while players seeded 7-20 bypass the first round of the finals.

The remaining 28 players will bowl 4 games starting from scratch with the top 14 advancing to the second round. The second round will be played in the same format with the top 10 advancing to single-elimination match play

Match play consists of two games, with the total pinfall to determine the winner. In all matches the highest seeded player will meet the lowest seeded player, the second highest seeded player will meet the second lowest seeded player etc.

The field will be trimmed to 8 and then 4 players who will advance to the semifinals. The winners of the semifinal matches will bowl for the title and the 4.500 Euro top prize. The losers of the semifinals will bowl a two-game roll-off for third and fourth place.

 

Qualifying Standings after 3 of 18 Squads

Pos	Player	Country	G1	G2	G3	G4	G5	G6	Pins	Avg.	Hc	Total
1.	Ivan Semenov	Russia	225	279	246	202	216	215	1383	230.50		1383
2.	Roman Starchenkov	Russia	249	247	193	192	250	203	1334	222.33		1334
3.	Oleg Chumak	Russia	227	225	244	222	194	203	1315	219.17		1315
4.	Viktor Krasavkin	Russia	204	245	227	246	180	179	1281	213.50		1281
5.	Polina Kosyakova	Russia	168	190	191	196	234	223	1202	200.33	48	1250
6.	Alexey Geraskin	Russia	202	197	198	191	214	236	1238	206.33		1238
7.	Oleg Sazonov	Russia	169	175	245	214	223	194	1220	203.33		1220
8.	Sergey Andreev	Russia	186	233	205	217	171	193	1205	200.83		1205
9.	Sergey Bogachev	Russia	190	204	234	174	189	199	1190	198.33		1190
10.	Dmitry Danilin	Russia	198	204	178	196	170	217	1163	193.83		1163
11.	Alexander Dolginov	Russia	183	182	225	179	180	211	1160	193.33		1160
12.	Alexander Brykov	Russia	192	167	182	187	201	225	1154	192.33		1154
13.	Sergey Isaev	Russia	156	241	233	176	199	147	1152	192.00		1152
14.	Maksim Matveychuk	Russia	200	170	162	191	212	215	1150	191.67		1150
15.	Aram Fidanyan	Russia	119	213	244	220	188	166	1150	191.67		1150
16.	Sergey Starchenkov	Russia	170	210	245	161	181	176	1143	190.50		1143
17.	Anna Orlova	Russia	206	188	173	235	125	168	1095	182.50	48	1143
18.	Roman Andriasov	Russia	227	173	163	169	182	214	1128	188.00		1128
19.	Alexey Sokolov	Russia	160	219	173	188	199	186	1125	187.50		1125
20.	Vladimir Vasilyev	Russia	236	167	193	192	171	159	1118	186.33		1118
21.	Oleg Tsapin	Russia	182	152	175	182	198	222	1111	185.17		1111
22.	Slavolyub Milkovich	Serbia	211	139	225	161	211	163	1110	185.00		1110
23.	Nikita Kuznetsov	Russia	139	246	191	200	197	136	1109	184.83		1109
24.	Vladimir Surkov	Russia	166	232	184	162	156	200	1100	183.33		1100
25.	Nikita Koshelev	Russia	245	148	177	164	207	158	1099	183.17		1099
26.	Ilya Bulavin	Russia	170	224	169	181	187	167	1098	183.00		1098
27.	Tatyana Stepanova	Russia	149	182	149	161	209	191	1041	173.50	48	1089
28.	Galina Maslova	Russia	171	151	183	159	196	178	1038	173.00	48	1086
29.	Vyacheslav Schekachev	Russia	225	181	164	155	147	191	1063	177.17		1063
30.	Timofey Gorshkov	Russia	181	129	160	181	158	194	1003	167.17		1003
31.	Alexander Gurkov	Russia	156	180	177	173	125	191	1002	167.00		1002
32.	Pavel Alekseev	Russia	152	167	156	161	188	178	1002	167.00		1002
33.	Egor Troyanovsky	Russia	124	169	161	188	182	170	994	165.67		994
34.	Elena Milkovich	Russia	128	186	167	113	172	153	919	153.17	48	967
35.	Artem Danilin	Russia	181	137	133	152	161	185	949	158.17		949
36.	Boris Sozinov	Russia	182	171	143	206	115	127	944	157.33		944
37.	Marina Kuzina	Russia	142	136	186	122	139	164	889	148.17	48	937
38.	Anton Pronchev	Russia	167	97	156	155	169	171	915	152.50		915
39.	Julia Sozinova	Russia	131	102	147	157	174	119	830	138.33	48	878
40.	Andrey Dudov	Russia	80	104	78	92	85	77	516	86.00		516