INDIANAPOLIS (Feb. 26, 2020) – Sweden’s Jesper Svensson, a 25-year-old lefthanded two-hander, averaged 238.77 while winning 11 of his 16 matches Wednesday to earn the top berth for Saturday’s stepladder finals in the Go Bowling PBA Indianapolis Open at Royal Pin Woodland by 24 pins over Shawn Maldonado of Houston, Texas.

Svensson, who will be bowling for his eighth career title, posted a 30-game total of 7,493 pins to top a field of five finalists that includes two players vying for their first title: Maldonado and Nick Pate of Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota. Qualifying third was Anthony Simonsen of Little Elm, Texas, and claiming the fifth berth in the finals was 42-year-old Tom Smallwood of Saginaw, Michigan, who fired a 287 final game to advance from 10th place into the championship round.

Saturday’s stepladder finals will air live on FS1 at 8:30 p.m. EST. The Indianapolis Open is included in the 2020 “million dollar 300 bonus” incentive program that will pay the tournament champion a $1 million bonus if he bowls a 300 game in Saturday’s championship match.

Competition in Indianapolis continues Thursday with two seven-game qualifying rounds in the Mark Roth-Marshall Holman PBA Doubles Championship at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. The top 16 teams will advance to two Baker format match play rounds Friday at noon and 6 p.m. to decide the five teams that will compete for the title Saturday at 4:30 p.m. The doubles finals will be taped to air on FS1 on Sunday, March 8, at noon.

Both tournaments are being contested on a “dual lane condition” scoring environment in which the 42-foot Mark Roth oiling pattern is applied to the left lane and the Marshall Holman 37 pattern to the right lane. All qualifying and match play rounds of both tournaments are being livestreamed by FloBowling (subscriptions are available at FloBowling.com).

GO BOWLING PBA INDIANAPOLIS OPEN

(a 2020 Go Bowling PBA Tour Tier 2 event)

Royal Pin Woodland, Indianapolis, Wednesday

Final Match Play Standings (after 30 games; top five advance to stepladder finals live on FS1 Saturday at 8:30 p.m. EST)

1, Jesper Svensson, Sweden, 11-5, 7,493.
2, Shawn Maldonado, Houston, 11-5, 7,469.
3, Anthony Simonsen, Little Elm, Texas, 10-6, 7,350.
4, Nicholas Pate, Inver Grove Heights, Minn., 9-6-1, 7,288.
5, Tom Smallwood, Saginaw, Mich., 8-8, 7,192.
6, Anthony Lavery-Spahr, Pasadena, Texas, 11-5, 7,143, $5,000.
7, EJ Tackett, Bluffton, Ind., 7-8-1, 7,142, $4,500.
8, Jason Belmonte, Australia, 6-10, 7,099, $4,100.
9, Matt Russo, Fairview Heights, Ill., 8-8, 7,094, $3,700.
10, Kyle Troup, Taylorsville, N.C., 7-9, 7,087, $3,500.
11, Greg Ostrander, Brick, N.J., 8-8, 7,064, $3,300.
12, Francois Lavoie, Canada, 6-10, 7,027, $3,100.
13, Brandon Novak, Chillicothe, Ohio, 7-8-1, 6,973, $3,000.
14, Ryan Shafer, Horseheads, N.Y., 4-11-1, 6,934, $2,700.
15, Tom Daugherty, Riverview, Fla., 6-10, 6,924, $2,600.
16, Wes Malott, Pflugerville, Texas, 7-9, 6,876, $2,500.

300 Games: Nick Pate, Matt Russo.