Maltese players record four wins on the first day of the World Snooker Championship

This year’s edition of the World Snooker Championship, organised by the World Snooker Federation (WSF) in Sofia, Bulgaria, kicked off on Saturday.

The seven Maltese players participating in this edition all played their first group match. On this first day, Brian Cini, Chris Peplow, Xavier Rizzo, and Alex Borg all won their matches.

Both Cini and Peplow had easy, 3-0, wins.

Cini had the better of Poland’s Sebastian Milewski. The Maltese player an 88-point break in the first frame and dominated in almost every frame to win with scores of 92(88)-09, 89-2, 65-59.

Peplow was in absolute command in every frame against South Africa’s Michael Davids and in the third frame closed the encounter with a 51-point run. He won with scores of 60-2, 60-13, 84(51)-0.

Teenager Xavier Rizzo, who earlier this week in Sofia achieved a prestigious result by reaching the last 16 in the Junior World Championship, also started his commitments with a win.

Rizzo beat Latvia’s youngster Mareks Cipsts 3-1.

Rizzo opened with a two-frame lead but his opponent reduced the gap before Rizzo closed the match in the fourth frame. He won with scores of 56-48, 63-23, 37-59, 68-56.

Veteran Alex Borg secured the fourth Maltese win by beating Serbia’s Vasilije Pešić 3-2.

Borg couldn’t have a better start after winning the first two frames with breaks of 70 and 66 points. The Serb got back into the game after winning the next two frames but in the deciding frame Borg was focused and after making a 22-point mini break, he was more comfortable and closed the match in his favour.

Borg won with scores of 70(70)-23, 91(66)-0, 14-71, 51-53, 61-18.

The other three players lost their matches. Aaron Busuttil couldn’t have a better start after winning the first frame with a 75-point break but Englishman Kaylan Patel won three frames in a row to turn the result in his favour.

Both Joseph Casha and Chris Camilleri lost their matches 3-0. They were beaten by Thailand’s Nattanapong Chaikul and England’s Billy Castle respectively.