Filipina Rubilen Amit goes 4-0 in Women’s World 10 Ball
Rubilen “Bingkay” Amit captured the very first running of the Yalin Women's World 10 Ball Championship way back in 2009, defeating Taiwan's Shin Mei Lu in the final. Four years later, she could be a threat to win it all once more.
The diminutive shooter from Mandaue, Cebu has successfully hurdled all four of her first group assignments as of Friday to be the hot favorite to win the top slot in Group 7 of this year's event at Newport Mall in Resorts World Manila.
Amit defeated Marika Poikkioki of Finland 6-3, then trounced Bi Zhu Qing, a former World 9 Ball champ from China, 6-4, before overpowering Angeline Ticoalu of Indonesia 6-3.
Next up for Amit was a tricky match against countrywoman and good friend Iris Ranola. The Zamboanga City potter, who is a two-time SEA Games gold medalist, cruised through the qualifiers but was unlucky to end up with Amit in the same group.
Ranola struggled in the group stage. Going into the match with Amit, she carried a 1-1 slate and perhaps some would think Amit would go easy on her friend in order to help her reach the knockout stage as well.
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But Amit showed her integrity and her class by steamrollering Ranola 6-2 on the main table after TV coverage had concluded. The shot of the match was a glorious table-length bank on the 10 ball to go up 4-2. Next up for Amit is one last group stage match against Chinese Taipei's Ho Yun Tan.
Ranola now needs to win her last two matches and perhaps get some help to catch the last bus for the knockout stages. Only the top three from each group of six makes it to the single elimination phase, with the group winner getting seeded directly into the round of 16. Second and third-placers play in the first knockout stage to join them.
It was also a rough opening two days for the other Filipinos in the field. 14-year-old Cheska Centeno dropped a heartbreaking 6-5 decision to Brittany Bryant of Canada, flubbing the 10 ball in the case game because of poor positional play from nine to ten. Centeno has a win and two losses and needs to sweep her next two matches to have a hope of qualifying.
Another Pinay teen, Gillian Go also stumbled, falling to Jennifer Barreta of the USA, 6-3. Go sports a 1-2 slate with two matches to go.
Meanwhile other stars shone brightly, with Ga Young Kim impressing in her 6-2 TV table win over Venezuela's Mirjana Grujicic. Kim, the defending champ, wowed the crowd with three successful bank shots in the rout.
English legend Allison Fisher also looks in form. The Duchess of Doom obliterated a mistake-prone Yu Ram Cha of Korea via a 6-2 score on the TV table and is a hot favorite to qualify out of group 3.
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Not so fortunate was Jasmin Ouschan. In spite of the raucous support of her placard-holding Philippine Fan Club the Austrian fell to Han Yu of China 6-5 in the main TV table.
Ouschan led 5-3 and seemed set to win the match when she faced an angled but seemingly makeable 9-10 combination in rack 10 leading 5-4. She missed it, allowing Han, the reigning world 9 ball champ, to run out for hill-hill.
In rack eleven Han buried a 9-10 combo of her own to grab victory.
Other favorites like Chen Si Ming of China, Fu Xiao Fang, another Chinese star, and Kelly Fisher of England also took command of their groups with solid wins. Chen and Fisher are undefeated.
The group stages conclude on Saturday with the knockout rounds commencing on Sunday. The winner of this event banks US$21,000. There will be live broadcasts from Saturday all the way to Monday on Studio 23 starting at 2 pm. The the Jbet.com Queens Cup, an East versus West team challenge, runs from November five to seven in the same venue.
Follow Bob on Twitter @PassionateFanPH. Check out the official event page at www.womensworld10ball.com
