IBRAHIM Amir has been given a reprieve and will compete in the Guinness Nine-Ball Grand finals in Jakarta after the organisers decided to increase the number of players from 10 to 11 for the Oct 24-26 event.

This was confirmed by organisers Guinness and ESPN in an e-mail to the Malaysian Snooker and Billiards Federation (MSBF) yesterday.

Last month, the organisers decided to replace Ibrahim, who finished 10th in the Tour's rankings, with a player from the host country after no Indonesian made the top-10 bracket to qualify.

Initially, the event was supposed to pit the Tour's top-10 ranked players.

MSBF secretary Melvin Chia said the federation was happy that Ibrahim will see action after all.
"According to the e-mail from Guinness and ESPN, they decided to let Ibrahim compete on the basis that Malaysia is a huge supporter of their products, including the tour," said Melvin yesterday.

"The Grand finals will now consist 11 players and they will be drawn into two groups."

Ibrahim said his inclusion is a belated birthday gift as he turned 47 on Sunday.

"I will not waste this chance to make an impact in Jakarta," said Ibrahim.

The qualifiers: Chang Jung Lin, Yang Ching Shun, Wang Hung Hsiang, Wu Chia Ching (all Taiwan), Alex Pagulayan, Joven Bustamante, Dennis Orcollo, Antonio Gabica (the Philippines), Ryu Seung Woo (S. Korea). Ricky Yang (Indonesia), Ibrahim Amir (Malaysia).