The capacity crowd at Pearl Plaza’s Pearl Bowling Center braced for a big victory by a hometown bet after Suarez bundled out compatriot Chester King in smashing fashion, 267-192, in a game that netted the 22-year-old Filipino the AMF’s Men’s High Game Award worth $1,000.
But Suarez suddenly lost steam in his final matchup with Zulkifli, who went on to topple the Filipino and bag the top purse of $5,000 and 75 ranking points staked in this event, the second of the eight-stage series culminating in the Grand Slam Finals in Singapore.
Suarez settled for second worth $2,300 and won 60 ranking points.
Tom Hahl, winner of the Boysen-PBC Championships who lost to Zulkilfi in the semis, finished third and took home $1,200, while King, who placed sixth in the kickoff leg in Malaysia, placed fourth ($1,100) and won 32 ranking points.
Earlier, Liza del Rosario likewise fell short of her bid in the women’s side of the event as she bowed to Singaporean Jesmine Ho, 169-185. Ho went on to beat Korean Shin Hyun Soo, 225-208, to win the crown worth $2,500.
Del Rosario settled for fourth ($800) behind Lai Kin Ngoh of Malaysia with Cecilia Yap, fourth placer in the Malaysian leg, finishing 10th place.
In a sudden death duel between the men’s and women’s champions, Zulkifli beat Ho, 280-179, to win another $1,000.
The organizing ESPN Star Sports will telecast the two-day event on June 30 at 4 p.m. with the quarterfinal round with a replay on July 4. The semis and finals will be shown on July 1, also at 4 p.m. and will have their replay on July 7. Highlights of the event will be telecast on July 10 at 5 p.m.