Amit faces ex-world champ

MANILA, Philippines - Rubilen Amit racked up three victories in a busy Thursday, including an emphatic 8-2 rout of Norway’s Line Kjoersvik to barge into the semifinal round of the 2010 Yalin Women’s World 10-Ball Championship at Robinson’s Galleria.

The 28-year-old Amit pounced on the erratic Kjoersvik in their quarterfinal showdown and easily book a seat in the semis against former world champion Ga Young Kim.

Kim stopped the giant-killing spree of Eun Ji Park, fashioning out a convincing 8-1 triumph in their all-Korean quarterfinal duel.

Earlier, Amit, a double-gold medalist in the 2009 Laos SEA Games, routed Joanne Ashton of Canada, 8-2, then edged Han Yu of China, 8-7, over at the Nuvo City in Libis, Quezon City.

“Maybe I’ve got a little bit lucky but I felt a little embarrassed for her (Kjoersvik) because she really missed some big shots,” said Amit, who won four games against a loss in the prelims.

But the former World 9-Ball runner-up had to battle back from a 6-7 deficit against Yu, who swept Group 4 with five wins, to hack out the come-from-behind victory and stay on course of her title-retention bid.

Two balls away from getting knocked out of the tournament staking a total purse of $75,000, including $20,000 to the champion, Amit watched Yu force a difficult shot on the 9-ball that completely missed its target instead of opting for a safety shot.

Amit calmly sank the nine and 10 balls to force a hill-hill game at 7 then calmly cleaned up the deciding rack to escape with the win.

Then she faced an error-prone Kjoersvik, a 12-time national champion back home.

“If I were to hit it, I would have opted for a safety shot but it’s her (Yu) decision, maybe she thought she could hit it,” said Amit. “I got lucky there.”

The win thus set Amit up against an old rival in Ga, a former World Pool titlist, three-time US Open champion and a 2008 East Asian Games gold medalist.

Amit and the Korean champ split their two encounters in 9-ball with the former winning in the 2007 World Pool Championship and the latter getting even in an invitational tournament in Chinese Taipei the same year.

“We split our first two matches but it was both in 9-ball. This is the first time we’ll be playing in the 10-ball so it’s going to be a tough match,” said Amit, already assured of $5,000 for making it to the semis.

In the quarterfinals, Amit raced to a 2-1 start but missed a 1-10 combination that rimmed out of the right corner pocket.

But Kjoersvik failed to cash in on her opportunities as she likewise flubbed a 3-10 combination, enabling Amit to take the fourth rack and the next three highlighted by a brilliant carom shot wherein she hit the red 3 with the cue ball caroming off the 10-ball, which rolled into the left corner pocket to the delight of the crowd.

Amit went comfortably ahead, 6-1, but made a scratch on the eighth frame, giving her Norwegian rival the chance to make it at 6-2.

After missing what seemed to be an easy shot on the yellow 1, Amit watched Kjoersvik miss again with the Filipino bet wrapping it up with a 3-10 combo.

The other quarterfinal pairings, pitting Kelly Fisher of England and Li Jia of China and Karen Corr of Ireland and Jasmine Ouschan of Austria, were being played at presstime.