Amit shrugs off loss; KO phase begins

MANILA, Philippines - Chinese Taipei’s Chen Tsai Pei crushed Rubilen Amit in a duel of leaders, posting a 6-2 rout yesterday to sweep Group I of the 2010 Yalin Women’s World 10-Ball Championship at the Nuvo City in Libis, Quezon City.

The 27-year-old Chen, the reigning China 9-Ball Open winner, took five straight racks after yielding the opening frame to fashion out the surprisingly easy victory over the reigning World 10-Ball champion and top their group with a 5-0 (win-loss) slate.

Chen capped her domination of Amit with three straight combinations as she turned a 0-1 deficit into a 5-1 lead.

“She didn’t give me a chance,” said Amit.

Despite the loss, Amit still made it through the knockout phase among 24 players with a 4-1 slate. The knockout stage starts today.

“When I got my chance, I couldn’t capitalize on it and blew it. She shot pretty well,” said Amit.

It was Chen’s second straight victory over Amit this year after the former beat the latter in this year’s China Open, which Chen ruled in emphatic fashion.

“I never expected to win this big, maybe I just gave it my best,” said the soft-spoken Chen through an interpreter.

Up 2-1, Chen baffled the former World 9-Ball runner-up and double gold medalist in the 2009 Laos Southeast Asian Games with powerful breaks and safety shots.

The Taiwanese then piled up 2-10, 1-10 and 1-10 combos in the fourth to sixth racks and could’ve up wrapped up the match if not for a missed shot on the black-8 to the left corner pocket.

That enabled Amit to snatch the seventh rack and cut her deficit to just 2-5.

But the Filipina bet succumbed to pressure and made a foul shot in the eighth rack with Chen pouncing on her rival’s miscue to clean up the table for the win.

Late in the night, Iris Ranola came one rack shy of advancing to the knockout stage but dropped a 2-6 setback to Japanese Miyuki Fuke in Group 5.

Ranola, a runner-up in the US Open in 2008, actually finished in a five-way tie for first but wound up last after the tiebreak. She ended up with the lowest total games won.

Korean Yu Ram Cha, who defeated Spanish Amalia Matas, 6-2, clinched the first berth with 27 won games while Fuke and Chinese Wu Jing sealed the other spots with scores of 20 and 21, respectively.

Matas actually tied Fuke and Jing with 25 apiece but ended up with the lowest total games in another tiebreak.

Former world champion Kelly Fisher also booted out 12-year-old Filipina Gillian Go, 6-3, to top Group 3 with a 5-0 record while crowd darling Jasmine Ouschan of Austria overpowered Chun Zheng Xiao of China, 6-1, to likewise finished unscathed in Group 7.

In Group 4, Yu Han of China humbled heavy favorite Ga Young Kim of Korea, 6-5, for a 5-0 sweep.

But the Korean, a former three-time US Open champ and East Asian Games gold medal winner, also advanced with a 4-1 card.