The biggest tournament in Europe, Ballmaster Open was held from the 2nd of January until the 11th of January 2026 in the magnificint Tali Bowling Centre in Helsinki, Finland.
Total of 1128 entries and re-entries were bowled during the duration of the tournament by 485 players, where of 88 were women.
The score to make the cut to final step 1 was 1390, or 231,67 average.
After three final steps it came down to two semi final matches where all the players were from Finland.
In the first match Santtu Tahvanainen won over Jarno Lahti, who was last year‘s winner with the score of 222 to Lahti‘s 202. Then in the second match Rami Mukkula won over Linus Boström with the score of 216 to Boström‘s 211.
In the final match, Santtu took an early lead with Mukkula struggling to hit the pocket and keep up with Santtu. In the end Santtu proved to be too hard to beat and he became the winner with the score of 204 to Mukkula‘s 170.
This was Santtu Tahvanainen‘s first win on the EBT Tour and he grabbed the top prize of 10,000 euros.
The winner of the women‘s ranking in Finland was Elissa Mehmet, Sweden who was close to making the top 16 but finished eventually in 18th place.