Liza strikes again, rules Indon Open

Filipina bowler Liza del Rosario made another shining performance in the international scene, crowning herself women’s Masters champion in the second Indonesian Open at Jaya Ancol Bowl.

Del Rosario, 27, narrowly defeated Vanessa Fung of Hong Kong in a sudden death for a second straight win in the Asian Bowling Federation (ABF) Tour following her conquest of the Singapore Open championship last month.

It was a scintillating win for the Columbia Boysen Bowlmart-sponsored Filipina bowler as she struggled earlier in the qualifying round and had to go through the stepladder matches to gain a crack at the title versus Fung.

Del Rosario, seeded No. 3 in the tourney, forced the sudden death with a 212-201 win over Fung in their first match.

The eventual champion knocked out Malaysian second seed Choy Poh Lai and compatriot Jojo Canare in the stepladder plays.

Canare settled for fourth place although she made big stirs in the tourney with victories over defending champion Kirsten Penny of England and first block leader Novie Phang of Indonesia. Penny ended up in fifth ahead of Phang in sixth.

Curiously, Del Rosario finished only 12th in the qualifying with an eight-game total of 1652. She averaged 206.50 a game.

Irene Benitez was the No. 1 Filipina finisher at sixth with 1680, followed by Canare at 11th with 1657.

Qatar’s Ahmed Shaheen shared the spotlight with Del Rosario by winning the men’s crown.

Shaheen defeated challenger and the newly-crowned Qatar Open champion Remy Ong of Singapore, 244-234, to capture his third international title this year.

Shaheen’s two other titles this year were the Sinai Open in March and the Thailand Open in May. The champion had earlier led the field of 36 men finalists in both the two blocks in the semifinals by a comfortable margin of 233 pins going into the stepladder finals as top-seed.

Ong, the third-seed, earned a crack at the title when he edged out second-seed Han Jae Ho (256) of Korea and first stepladder match winner Abdulla Al-Qattan (194) of Qatar with 257.

Han settled for third while Al-Qattan ended up in fourth place.