Amit, Ranola Keep Win Run

MANILA, Philippines — Local bets Rubilen Amit and Iris Ranola survived the feisty challenge of their respective rivals Thursday to remain unbeaten in the 2011 Yalin Women's World 10-Ball Championship at Robinsons Galleria.

Amit hacked out a 6-4 win over China's Wu Jing for her third win in as many matches while Ranola rallied from a three-rack deficit to surprise Taiwanese Hsiao Chi Lin, 6-5, for her second win of the tournament.

With their victories, the diminutive cue artists moved within a win of making it to the knockout stage of the five-day event.

Amit, the 2009 world champion, took a 3-1 lead but the Chinese player rallied to tie the match twice, the last 4-all.

But that made Amit more focused as she won the next two racks with relatively ease to stay in title hunt.

The narrow win of Amit came a day after a 6-4 win over Taiwanese Shin-Mei Liu, the same player she beat to win the inaugural staging of this tourney in 2009.

"Mas maganda nilaro ko kagabi (Wednesday) kaysa dito kasi may mga errors ako," Amit admitted. "Kung ganito nilaro ko kagabi baka kinain ako ng buhay,"

At presstime, Amit is playing American Monica Webb with a chance to gain a spot in the knockout stage.

She is scheduled to play reigning title-holder Jasmin Ouschan of Austria today in a battle of the first two champions of the event.

Ranola appeared to be struggling after falling behind 0-3.

But she regained her composure and won the next four racks to take the initiative. Ranola eventually won the match but not after experiencing some scary moments.

The victory of the 34-year old Ranola was a follow-up to her impressive 6-3 triumph over former World 9-Ball champion Xiaofang Fu of China the other day.