Bowler Jazreel wins Singapore Open title
Ending title drought in style, Singapore kegler pips national teammate Joey Yeo to bag trophy and $12,000 prize money
It has been 10 years since a local female kegler lifted a Singapore Open trophy.
But on Saturday afternoon, Jazreel Tan ended the decade-long drought after she emerged victorious in a 33-strong field of competitors in the women's open category of the 50th Singapore Open at the SingaporeBowling centre at Temasek Club.
Tan emerged as the second seed in the second round after reeling in 1,809 pinfalls, placing her in the semi-finals with South Korea’s Jeon Eun Hee (1,784) and Baek Seung Ja (1,772).
The semi-finals were a tight affair, but the 28-year-old held her composure and registered a score of 223 to pip Jeon (211) and Baek (191) to set up an all-Singaporean final against national teammate Joey Yeo.
Tan then edged out Yeo 196-181 and 210-190 to clinch the title and bag the winning cheque of $12,000.
Her victory was not only significant to the nation, but also served as a timely boost for Tan, who had last won a title in 2015 and who felt her form had been fluctuating in recent weeks.
After the win, she said: “It’s awesome. It’s been a long time coming too and I’m glad it came today so I’m very happy.
“It’s been a long while since I last won a title. Before that I was always knocking on the door. It’s a good feeling to finally have a little bit of a breakthrough because the last few weeks have been a little tough with certain changes to my game.”
Runner-up Yeo felt that her failure to capitalise on her opportunities cost her the game, but remained optimistic, saying: “The only thing in control is how you make every shot, so going into the finals, my focus was to make good shots and I guess I made some bad decisions in the start, missed a couple of spares, so I’ll just learn from the experience and move forward.”
It was a similar tale of success in the men’s open, as fourth seed Anthony Simonsen forced a second game play-off in the step-ladder finals in which he outclassed top seed Australian Sam Cooley 245-224 and 207-177 to win the title.
Simonsen, 21, who pocketed the competition’s biggest prize purse of $50,000, said: “I’m kind of at a loss for words. I set out on a mission coming into this trip to try to win both of the events I bowled. I finished second in Busan two weeks ago; this is almost like redemption and I couldn’t be happier.”
- Additional reporting by Jonah Foong
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