Amit wins second World 10-ball gold
MANILA – In a Europe versus Asia finale, Filipina Rubilen Amit took down Great Britain’s Kelly Fisher in a world class battle of billiard heavyweights.
The final four players of the World Championship narrowed down between China, Taiwan, England, and the Philippines. Amit was the lone soldier left after the round robin stage of the tournament.
Though China and Taiwan have been dominating forces in Asia pool, both countries have never won the World 10-Ball, considered to be the hardest title to win. Pei Chen Tsai of Taiwan and Han Yu of China would both have their chances to make history if they could get past their respective opponents of Rubilen Amit and Kelly Fisher.
Kelly Fisher dominated the field until the finals of the Worlds
In the first semi-finals, this would be a re-match of 2011 when Tsia defeated Amit in the quarter finals. This time Amit got her revenge in a back and forth see-saw match which Amit won 9-6.
In the second semi, this was an exact re-match of 2011 semi finals where Yu and Fisher faced off to win the right to the finals. Fisher won by a fair margin then, and a huge margin now with a 9-2 whopping win.
“I may have to give the edge to Kelly who has more experience winning on the international stage”, commented Allison Fisher who did the commentary for the Championship match. Most of the experts would agree Kelly had the nod on experience. But Amit had different plans in front of her home crowd.
The finals was a classic blow by blow exchange between two heavyweights in pool. Fisher jumped to a 2-0 lead before Amit could blink. Eventually the lead was at 31 in Fisher’s favor. Amit then mounted a comeback to take the lead at 4-3. A huge scratch by Amit in the side pocket on the 10-Ball turned the momentum again as Fisher re-took the lead and eventually went up to 6-4. The ever steady Amit re-grouped and steadily pocketed one by one and safety exchanged with Kelly in several games, and managed another streak of 5 games in a row to reach the hill at 9-6. Fisher stopped the bleeding and made it 9-7 after a great runout. Then the next game she had a golden opportunity to get within 2 game of the World Title but unexpectedly missed an easy 8-Ball. Amit methodically made the final 3 balls for the win and was so overcome with emotion she actually leaped into the arms of her opponent! Fortunately for Amit, Kelly caught her. AP