Amit advances in Women 9-Ball meet
TWO- time world champion Rubilen Amit earned a spot in the quarterfinals of the 2018 Amway eSpring International Women 9-Ball Championship being held at the Taipei Stadium in Taipei, Taiwan.
The Cebuana cue master survived the gallant stand of Taiwanese Liu Shin-Mei with a close 7-6 win in the second round of the world ranking tournament sanctioned by World Pool-Billiard Association.
Amit secured an opening-round bye after claiming the top seeding in Group G of the event that offers $93,400 total prize fund including $ 34,000 to the champion and $13,000 to the runner-up.
In the quarterfinals, Amit will be facing another Taiwanese in Chen Ho-Yu who posted a 7-4 win over Pan Xiao-Ting of China in the other second-round game.
The others who made it to the quarterfinals were Wei Tzu-Chien of Taiwan, Chen Si Ming of China, Liu Sha Sha of China, Yu Han of China, Chou Chieh-Yu of Taiwan and Kuo Szu-Ting of Taiwan.
Wei stunned former world champion Kim Ga Young of South Korea (7-0), Chen blasted Kawahara Chihiro of Japan (7-3), Liu outplayed Chen Chia-Hua of Taiwan (7-4), Han toppled Fu Xiao Fang of China (7-4), Chou clobbered Marharyta Fefilava of Belarus (7-3), and Kuo ousted Jin HyeJu of South Korea (7-2).
The quarterfinals, semifinals and finals were scheduled on Sunday night.
Amit got a spot in the knockout stage after finishing with 3-1 record in Group G.
She defeated former world champion Kelly Fisher of Great Britain (7-6), Molrudee Kasemchaiyanan of New Zealand (7-2) and Fefilava(7-2) then lost to Lim Yu-Mi of South Korea (3-7).
Amit was actually tied with Lim and Fefilava who also had 3-1 marks but the Filipina champion won via superior quotient points.
Not as lucky was 2016 Amway eSpring International Women 9-Ball Championship winner Chezka Centeno who dropped to fourth place in Group A with a 2-2 card.
The two-time Southeast Asian Games gold medalist beat Taiwanese Hsieh Wu-Wen (7-4) and American Rachel Lang (7-4) but suffered losses to Chen Si-Ming of China (47) and Kuo Szu-Ting of Taiwan (17) to bow out of contention.