The group phase of the World Snooker Championship organised by the World Snooker Federation continued on Monday in Sofia, Bulgaria, with Chris Peplow emerging as the only Maltese player to record a victory from the four competitors in action.
Peplow secured his second consecutive win of the championship and now leads Group X. He defeated Thailand’s Lomnaw Issarangkun Na Ayuttaya in a closely contested match. After losing the opening frame, Peplow responded strongly and took control from the second frame onwards. He closed the second frame with a 63-point break and went on to dominate the following two frames to seal the match by three frames to two. The frame scores were 30-62, 65-30, 61-9, and 76-9.
Aaron Busuttil, Alex Borg, and Chris Camilleri were all on the losing side during the third day of competition.
Busuttil suffered his second defeat of the championship against fifteen year old Chinese player Wang Xinzhong. The match went to a deciding frame after four frames, where Xinzhong produced a 105-point break to secure a three frames to two victory. Xinzhong had the opportunity to extend his break further after potting all fifteen red balls, but a shot on the black ball jumped out of the pocket and off the table.
In other matches played on Monday, Alex Borg lost 3-0 against Joel Connolly of Northern Ireland. Chris Camilleri also recorded his second defeat of the tournament after losing three frames to one against Ganzorig Soyolsuren of Mongolia.
On Tuesday, all seven Maltese players will be in action during the group phase as follows:
Group X
Chris Peplow vs Vladut Ciuche of Romania at 09.00
Group AE
Xavier Rizzo vs Simon Blackwell of England at 11.00
Group C
Chris Camilleri vs Matvei Lagodzinschii of Ukraine at 13.00
Group AM
Alex Borg vs Nikita Bazilevics of Latvia at 13.00
Group F
Joseph Casha vs Steven Hughes of England at 15.00
Group I
Brian Cini vs Wayne Brown of England at 15.00
Group Q
Aaron Busuttil vs Manuel Ederer of Germany at 17.00
