TORONTO, Aug 30: Having missed out in the Mixed Pairs and the Power Rosenblum Cup, Zia Mahmood, a Pakistani American, is making a determined effort to make it third time lucky as he and Michael Rosenberg are leading the Open Pairs of the World Bridge Championships after two sessions in Montreal Thursday.

The duo have a reasonable lead over compatriots Alan Sontag and Peter Weichsel.

Pakistani players Rashid Jaffer and Sultan Siddiqui, who surprised the bridge world by advancing to the Pairs final rounds, are trailing with 48 percent with three more sessions to go.

Sultan conceded that he and his partner Jaffer could not do well in the first two sessions. However, he said: “We are down but not out yet. We have to work very very hard in the remaining sessions to win any medal.”

Earlier, Italians burst the bubble of giant killers Indonesians beating them in the Power Rosenblum Cup final Thursday evening.

Playing under the name of Lavazza, the Italians managed to outplay Team Munawwar which had upset many favourite teams before moving into the final. Poland took bronze medal defeating Sweden also on Thursday.

In addition to Rosenblum Cup title, the Italians now hold the Olympiad, European Open, Mixed and Junior Championships.

In the Women’s Pairs, the USA and France are dominating the event as between them they occupy the first eight places.

Leading the way are McConnell winners Kerry Sanborn and Irena Levitina, just ahead of Mildred Breed and Shawn Quinn.

In the Senior Pairs the leaders are Germany’s Reiner Marsal and Entscho Wladlow. The 16-day World Championships will conclude Saturday.