
Rubilen Amit squeaked past Germany’s Pia Filler, 9-8, to advance to the quarterfinals of the women’s 9-ball singles at the World Games 2022 in Birmingham, Alabama Thursday (Friday in Manila).
The reigning Southeast Asian Games titlist rose from an 8-6 deficit and won the next three racks to turn back her many-time German national champion opponent.
The win set her up a meeting with another German in Veronika Ivanovskaia, who clobbered Argentina’s Bernarda Ayala, 9-1.
Other quarterfinalists pit veteran Kelly Fisher of Great Britain against Canada’s Brittany Bryant, Poland’s Oliwia Zalewska against Japan’s Yuki Hiraguchi, and Chinese Taipei’s Chieh-Yu Chou versus Korea’s Eun-Ji Park.
Ivanovskaia, who was born in St. Petersburg in Russia, began playing in 2003 and later became part of the German national team.
She was the winner of the 2018 European Pool Championships 8-ball event and the runner-up at the 2017 Austria Open.
Her highest WPA ranking is at No. 27.
Amit, for her part, is the first Filipino woman to become a world pool champion with multiple medals in the SEA Games and the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games.