The European Men’s Individual Snooker Championship which is being held in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina entered in its intensive knock out phase and after long day that ended after 2.00 a.m. one of the six Maltese players who have qualified to this stage, Brian Cini, managed to get a place in the last 16. During his encounter with the last 64 he also made the second highest break of the competition with a score of 137.
A total of 76 games were played and from the preliminary round known as the round of the last 96, only Isaac Borg was eliminated after losing against the Ukrainian Matvei Lagodzinschii 4-2. In this round Arthur Cachia defeated the Bulgarian, Viktor Ivanov 4-2, Chris Peplow won against Jonni Fulcher of Switzerland 4-1 while veteran Alex Borg also entered with the list of the last 64 after having a good 4-2 victory against Michal Frank of Slovakia.
Thus, the Maltese players in the successive round were five. In this phase the two Maltese veterans were eliminated. Arthur Cachia lost against the Polish, Antoni Kowalski 4-1 while Alex Borg lost against the Irishman Rodney Goggins 4-1. On the other hand the best three Maltese players, Aaron Busuttil, Brian Cini and Chris Peplow won and found a place with the last 32. Peplow had a very good victory of 4-2 against the Pole, Mateusz Baranowski who during the group matches didn’t lose a single frame and in this competition during this phase was ranked as number eight. The Maltese champion Busuttil defeated Andrejs Pripjoks of Latvia in a game where the decisive frames went in favor of the Maltese after a score of 4-3. Cini against Ales Herout of the Czech Republic had a brilliant performance particularly in the fifth frame, managing a clearance and a break of 137 points.
The matches of round 32 commenced around midnight and Aaron Busuttil lost 4-0, against the Irishman Rodney Goggins who had earlier eliminated Alex Borg while Chris Peplow lost against the Frenchman, Brian Ochoiski 4-2 after the Maltese built a lead of two frames at the beginning of the game. In this phase the fatigue and pressure was surely evident on the 32 players but Brian Cini held firm and defeated Raymond Fry of Northern Ireland, 4-2 and got a place amongst last sixteen.
Cini will now play against the 17-year-old from Latvia, Artemijs Žižins, who is currently one of the most promising young players of the European snooker and one of the best products from an Eastern European country. This game will be played over the best of seven frames and starts at 2 p.m.
