Fifty-one players, 47 from Turkey and two each from Germany and Russia, kicked off the 9th Istanbul Bowling Open Saturday at Timeout Bowling Center in Istanbul, Turkey.

Tolga ÅžiÅŸmanoÄŸullar (pictured left) of Turkey averaged 233.50 in Squad 2 to take the early lead in the tournament with 1401 pinfall total. ÅžiÅŸmanoÄŸullar, who had games of 201, 253, 266, 217, 246 and 218, outaveraged his nearest competitor by more than 25 pins. As all squad leaders, ÅžiÅŸmanoÄŸullar received a 300 Euro bonus.

Gülhan Aksular (below left), who was the best of 13 women, finished a distant second 106 pins behind with 1295 including 48 pins handicap, an average of 207.83.

Barlas Kontaş was third with 1230 and Taygun Erkeskin fourth with 1190. Rounding out the top 5 was Squad 1 leader Murat Özmen (right), who closed his six-game series with 246 for 1182 en route to pocket the 300 Euro bonus.

Marko Bromann of Germany was the best non-Turkish bowler in 21st place with 1108.

Qualifying continues Sunday, May 4, with Squads 3 & 4 scheduled to start at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. followed by Desperado Squad 1 slated for 5 p.m. Eastern European Summer Time (CEST +1). The top two players from the standings after the first four squads will earn berths into Sunday's finals.

After a two-year hiatus due to financial reasons, the Istanbul Bowling Open is back on the European Bowling Tour schedule.

The 9th edition of the tournament will be held from Saturday, May 3, through Sunday, May 11, at 20-lane Timeout Bowling Center in Istanbul, Turkey. The tournament is the sixth stop of the 2014 season and the second of six EBT "Gold" tournaments, the second-highest of four EBT categories.

Players will compete for total prize money of 60.000 Euro with 7.000 Euro going to the winner, 5.000 to the runner-up and 1.400 and 3.250 apiece to the third and fourth place finisher, respectively. Low to cash is 48th place worth 500 Euro.

Qualifying got underway on Saturday, May 3, and runs through Saturday, May 10 with the final qualifying Squad 20 scheduled for 8 p.m. Eastern European Summer Time (CEST +1). Qualifying concludes with the one-game Desperado Squad 2 slated to start at Midnight.

Women receive 8 pins handicap each game (maximum score is 300), a standard on the European Bowling Tour.

Total 48 players - the top 38 qualifiers, the top two players of a separate leaderboard from Squads 1-4 plus the top two players of Desperado Squad 1 and the top six players of Desperado Squad 2 - will advance to the finals on Sunday, May 11.

The top eight qualifiers earns three byes, qualifiers 9-18 get two byes, and qualifiers 19-28 receive a first-round bye.

The first five rounds of the final consist of four games from scratch. The field will be trimmed to 38, 28, 18, 8 and then four players, who will determine the champion in head-to-head matches with the two-game total determining the winner.

The top-seeded player after Round 5 bowls No. 4 seed and No. 2 takes on No. 3 in the semifinals. The winners advance to the title match while the losers will be seeded third and fourth according to their seeding after Round 5.

The 2014 European Bowling Tour features 20 tournaments in 14 countries. In its 15th season, the EBT consists of two Platinum, six Gold, three Silver and nine Satellite tournaments. The total prize fund exceeds one million Euro.

The top 50 men and the top 50 women in each event receive ranking points. Those points will be tabulated throughout the season to determine the top 12 men and top 12 women, who will compete in the eighth EBT Masters July 6, 2015 in Asti, Italy.