Rubilen Amit escaped an upset bid in women's 10 ball singles but both men's 9 ball doubles teams weren't as lucky as the billiards team produced mixed results on the first day of competition in the 30th Southeast Asian Games at the Manila Hotel tent.
Amit, a six-time SEA Games gold medalist across three events, found herself staring at a 0-4 deficit in her race-to-7 last 14 match against Siripaporn Nuanthankhamjan of Thailand but recovered to win seven of the last eight racks to book a spot in the quarterfinals.
Later on, Amit secured safe passage into the semifinals with a workmanlike 7-1 thrashing of Vietnam's Bui Xuan Vang. She was joined in the last four by compatriot Chezka Centeno, who brushed aside Waratthanun Sukritthanes of Thailand, 7-3.
But disaster struck the men's 9 ball doubles teams as the fancied pairs of world no. 4 Carlo Biado and Johann Chua and Jeffrey Ignacio and Warren Kiamco both fell in the semifinals.
Biado and Chua just couldn't get their game going, falling 2-9 to Singapore's Alosyius Yapp and Toh Lian Han. Ignacio and Kiamco, meanwhile, dropped an 8-9 heartbreaker to Myanmar's Thu Ang Moe and Phone Mint Kyaw.
Both Filipino pairs won their quarterfinal matches in contrasting fashion Tuesday, with Biado and Chua brushing aside Jefry Zen and Affrineza Nasution Irsal of Indonesia, 9-3, and the Ignacio-Kiamco tandem surviving Brunei's M Murni Ahmad Taufiq and Abu Bakar Muhammad Azim, 9-8.
Pool legend Efren Reyes kicked off what is likely his last SEA Games campaign with 100-37 win over Thongchai Punyawee of Thailand in the one-cushion carom event.