LADIES' MASTERS - ROUND TWO:

SITI HAS DONE IT AGAIN
The Thursday squads of the 28th Malaysian Open saw incredible women's bowling with local bowler Siti Safiyah Amirah, at the tender age of 14, blowing away all the opposition to win the Junior Open division and then taking her place in the Ladies' Open Masters. When the dust of battle of the first eight game block had settled, it was none other than Amirah that was the name at the top of the leader board.
The $64,000 question on Friday morning was whether Amirah could hold that position for the top seed place in the stepladder final - could she? - would she? Especially against the strong challenges of Sarah Yap of Malaysia and Filipina Liza Del Rosario.
Well, yes, she could and she did.
"I thought that things had gone wrong when I bowled a terrible137 in the fourth game," she said afterwards. "But I managed to get my game back together again and keep in front of Yap at the end. She needed to beat me by 21 pins in the last game, but I had 256 to her 258."
The vibrant Pyramid Meglanes is home to Amirah. She bowls just one league a week and averages around 202 and has been playing for just five years.
"I would very like to be selected to play in the Malaysian national squad in the near future," Amirah added, "I was in the junior squad last year.
"I have always been a great admirer of Shalin Zulkifli and am disappointed that she did not make the stepladder final this time, especially as she is the defending champion. For the title match today, I would rather meet someone other than a Malaysian but, of course, it would be great to have Malaysians taking all the top places."
The top six after the 16 games of the Masters now qualify for the stepladder final. Jazreel Tan of Singapore plus Malaysia's Wendy Chai and Li Kin Ngoh will open the first game and the girl with the highest score then takes on Filipina Liza Del Rosario and Malaysia's Sarah Yap. The highest score from that trio will face Amirah for the 2005 Malaysian Open title.