Shaky start imperils Amit’s World 9-ball bid

Rubilen Amit lost two of her first three games in the first stage of the two-day qualifiers, sending the SEA Games double gold medalist into the brink of elimination in the WPA Women’s World 9-ball Championships in Taipei, Taiwan yesterday.

Amit, the 24-year-old ace cue master who topped the 8-ball and 9-ball singles in the last SEA Games here, dropped a sorry 5-4 decision to Taiwanese C.H Lin, 5-4, bounced back with a 5-3 victory over L. Weaver in the second game but was routed by fancied Jasmin Ouschan of Austria, 5-0, late in the day for a 1-2 (win-loss) card in Group D.

Only the top three players in each group of the eight-division field will advance to the championship round of the five-day event which lured the top women players in the world, including defending champion Kim Ga-young of South Korea, who swept her first three games in Group A.

Ouschan, a former world junior champion, also won her first three matches in Group D, including a scary 5-4 victory over former world champion and Amway Cup titlist Shin-Mei Liu of Taiwan.

Liu had two wins against a loss, the same output put in by Lin, leaving Amit with no choice but to sweep her second day games in a bid to gatecrash the weekend play of the event which offers a total pot of $70,000.

Meanwhile, Meng Meng Zhou of China, a former world junior champion, also found herself on the verge of elimination when she lost two of the three games, including a 5-4 loss to C.Sorenson and a 5-3 setback to K. Yukawa in Group B.

British snooker star Kelly Fisher also virtually assured herself of a stint in the championship round by going 3-0 in the first day, beating Kynthios Orfanidis of the Netherlands, 5-0, Akio Otani of Japan, 5-1, and Lynette Hulley of Australia, 5-2.

International superstar Jennifer Chen of Taiwan will also have a lot of catching up to do after dropping her first two games to Akimi Kajitani, 5-2, and Denise Wilkinson of New Zealand, 5-2.