Fisher completes sweep, Amit cruises to next phase

MANILA, Philippines - Rubilen Amit outplayed Mica Claveria, 5-1, and made it to the next round even as Mary Ann Basas thumped Sarah Rousey of the US, 5-2, yesterday to stay alive in the JBETpoker.net Women’s World 10-Ball Championship at the Sky Dome of SM North Edsa in Quezon City.

It was Amit’s third straight win after an opening game loss to world No. 1 Kelly Fisher of England with the 27-year-old Filipina hoping to ride on her streak in the knockout phase of the tournament offering a total purse of $75,000.

Fisher proved more impressive as she beat Park Eun Ji of South Korea to complete her sweep of her five elimination round games for the No. 1 spot in Group 8.

Amit, the 2007 Amway World 9-Ball runner-up and three-time Southeast Asian Games gold medalist, is playing Park at presstime.

“I feel good because I’m finally in and bad at the same time because I beat a fellow RP bet,” said Amit, who also won over Charlene Chai of Singapore, 5-1, Tuesday and Yun Su I of Chinese Taipei, 5-1, Wednesday.

Basas, for her part, improved to 3-2 (win-loss) as she overwhelmed Japanese Akimi Kajitani, 5-1, Tuesday and nipped Spain’s Amalia Matas, 5-4, Wednesday. She bowed to Irish Julie Kelly, 2-5, Wednesday and Taiwanese Chou Chie Yu, 0-5, yesterday.

But Basas’ chances hinge on Kajitani’s game against Matas at presstime. Kajitani needs to win two racks to edge Basas for the last slot since Kelly had already clinched the No. 2 spot in Group 4 because of 18 racks won against the RP bet’s 17.

“Let’s just hope for the best,” said Basas.

Gillian Margarita Go, the 11-year-old wonder, bounced back from back-to-back setbacks by shocking Latetia Dos Santos of France, 5-3, to likewise remain in playoff contention with a 2-2 record.

Go, who stunned Australian No. 1 Lyndall Hulley, 5-3, in the first day but bowed to world No. 5 Yu Ram Cha of Korea, 2-5, and Liu Shin Mei of Chinese Taipei, 2-5, Wednesday, must beat American Tina Meraglio at presstime to make it to the next round.

If she loses, Go would need to win as many racks against Meraglio and hope that Hulley lose to Cha via a lopsided score to gain a ticket via the backdoor.

Like Claveria, who wound up with four losses against a win over Park, Iris Ranola, Nina Pangilinan, Melderd Almero and Fil-Am Zara del Rosario crashed out of the tournament.

Ranola, the 2008 WPBA Rookie of the Year, dropped three of her four matches, including a 3-5 setback to American Melissa Little.

The tournament, which stakes $20,000 to the champion, is backed by The Philippine STAR, Billiards Managers and Players Association of the Philippines, ABS-CBN, SM Mall North Edsa, Magic 89.9, Predator Cues, Takini Billiard Cloth, Aramith, Puyat Sports, and Bugsy Promotions.

Pangilinan, Almero and the Chicago-based Del Rosario have lost all their matches.

 “I hope we’ll have more Filipinas into the next stage,” Amit said.

Also advancing to the knockout stage were Jeanette “The Black Widow” Lee of the USA and Veronika Hubrtova of Czech Republic in Group 1; Allison Fisher of England and Lin Yuan-Chun of Chinese-Taipei in Group 2; Tan Hsiang-ling of Chinese-Taipei and Jasmin Ouschan of Austria in Group 3;

Liu in Group 5; Miyuki Fuke of Japan and former world champion Ga Young Kim of Korea in Group 6; and Corr, Tamara Rademakers of the Netherlands and Lim Yun Mi of Korea in Group 7.

Matches in the first two rounds of the knockout stage will be race-to-8 racks, while the quarterfinals and the semifinals will be race-to-9 and the finals race-to-10.