Amit routs Park, enters 10-ball semis

MANILA, Philippines - Rubilen Amit, the last Filipina bet standing, stormed to the semifinals of the 2013 Yalin Women’s World 10-ball Championship after scoring an emphatic 8-1 win over her Korea’s Eun Ji Park in last night’s quarterfinals at Resorts World Manila.

Sustaining the momentum from her two victories earlier in the day, Amit raced to a 3-0 lead against Park and never relinquished control en route to securing a stint in the Last-4.

The Cebuana ace will proceed with her bid for a second crown in the world 10-ball tilt in today’s semis against either Pei Chen Tsai of Chinese-Taipei or Xiao Ting Pan of China. Tsai and Pan were disputing the other berth at presstime. 

 â€œSana magtuloy-tuloy kasi talagang serious training kami para dito (I’ve been  training seriously for this tournament and I hope it pays off),” said Amit.

China’s Yu Han, meanwhile, whitewashed Korea’s Yu Ram Cha, 8-0, to cruise to the semis. Han, who earlier dethroned Korea’s Ga Young Kim in the Round-of-16, awaits the winner of the other quarterfinal pairing between Alisson Fisher and Kelly Fisher of Britain.

Earlier, Amit hacked out a come-from-behind 8-6 victory over Chinese-Taipei’s Chieh Yu Chou in the Round-of-16.

After playing tight in the early goings that saw her trail, 3-5, Amit willed herself back into the match and made a key adjustment on her shoulder stance to seize  five of the next six racks and barge into the Final 8.

“Napansin ko na tight yung balikat ko kaya parang matigas yung tira ko nung una. Nag-adjust lang ako, nirelax ko yung balikat (I realized that I had to relax my shoulders because it was too tight early on and my shots felt stiff),” said the Cebuana hotshot.

After a rather easy 8-2 win over erratic American Jennifer Barretta in the morning’s Round-of-32 sessions, Amit found herself playing catch up against Chieh.

A scratch in the first rack and a sorry miss on the five-ball in the next enabled the Taiwanese to take an early 2-0 lead. The Pinay cuemaster managed to tie it at 2-2 but she allowed Chieh to restore a 5-3  upperhand, mostly due to missed, fouled and scratched shots in the succeeding racks.

Then came Amit’s shoulder adjustment. Her shotmaking improved, the Phl bet seized the next four racks to go on the hill at 7-5.

After yielding the 13th rack, Amit got a second chance to close it out when the Taiwanese  sank the three-ball into the wrong pocket. Amit grabbed the opportunity to clean the table and seal the win.

Earlier Tsai drubbed Gao Meng of China, 8-3, to arrange a quarterfinals showdown with Xiao, who ousted former champion Jasmin Ouschan of Austria, 8-5.

Also through to the Last 8 were British bets Allison Fisher and Kelly Fisher, Yu Ram Cha of Korea and Yu Han of China.

Allison edged Taipei’s Yuan Chun Lin in a hill-hill battle, 8-7, while Kelly trounced Siming Chen of China, 8-4, to forge an all Brit quarters duel.