Amit storms her way to World 10-Ball semis

Reigning champion Rubilen Amit is now making big steps in her defense of the World Women’s 10-Ball Championship. The Filipina world champion came through with three important victories — two in convincing fashion and one via the backdoor — to barge her way into the semifinal round of this event sanctioned by the World Pool-Billiard Association. But Amit faces yet another acid test in the crossover Final Four, against Korean ace Ga-Young Kim. Amit needed to go through the Round-of-24 after she was denied an outright Round-of-16 entry by Chinese Taipei's Tsai Pen Chen, who handed the Filipina ace a 6-2 beating. But Amit struck back with a vengeance, hurdling Canada's Joanne Ashton and China's Han Yu. The 29-year-old member of the RP national team dumped Ashton, 8-2, then came from three racks down to stun Yu, 8-7, in matches held at the Nuvo City Showroom in Libis. Amit continued her fine showing by ripping Norway’s Line Kjoersvik, 8-2. Kim arranged a semis showdown with Amit after defeating Eun Ji Park in the quarterfinals. The winner of this five-day event will receive a juicy prize of $20,000 or roughly P860,000. "The pressure is getting bigger as the tournament progresses, but I'll just take it one match at a time," said Amit. In her match with Yu, who went unbeaten during the group stage, Amit took a 3-2 lead before some faulty preparations allowed the Chinese to grab a commanding 6-3 advantage. Yu clearly controlled the match, but soon began to make costly mistakes. Up 6-4, Yu failed to pocket the maroon ball No.7 in the right corner pocket, allowing Amit to cut the deficit to 6-5 by cleaning up the table. Amit eventually tied it at 6-all, but scratched the cue ball with a hard break, thus opening the door for Yu to grab a 7-6 advantage. But Amit saw another window of opportunity when Yu made a poor preparation on the yellow ball No. 9. She attempted to hit it into the upper right corner pocket, but that only allowed Amit a clearer view. The Pinay stalwart sank the last two balls to force a hill-hill encounter. "I thought I was done, but I kept my positive outlook," said Amit, who heaved a sigh of relief when she made the last ball of the deciding rack. "I was able to capitalize from her mistakes. The shot where she (Yu) missed the No.7 was the turning point of the match," added Amit. Amit then took a 30-minute car ride to Robinson's Galleria in Ortigas where she capitalized on every mistake made by her Norwegian foe, whose errors came mostly from scratches. - KY, RCJ, GMANews.TV