After the second day of the European Snooker Championship being held in Antalya, six of the seven Maltese players who travelled to Turkey to participate in this edition’s have already qualified for the next stage even though most of them have yet to play their last group match on Wednesday.
Brian Cini had already qualified after winning his first two games on Monday. He was now joined by Aaron Busuttil, Chris Peplow, Alex Borg, Arthur Cachia and Joseph Casha who all won their second group game on Tuesday.
Aaron Busuttil won 3-0 against the Belgian, Yorrit Hoes. So far Busuttil is the only Maltese who has not lost any frame. He kept the same form as the first day and in the first frame he produced a break of 90 points.
Chris Peplow, despite losing the first frame against the young Ukrainian, Anton Kazakov, recovered well to win three frames in a row and won this match 3-1.
Alex Borg and Arthur Casha had to force the fifth frame to win their match when they beat the Norwegian, Erik Dullerud and Nedim Ramic of Bosnia Herzegovina respectively. Both practically turned the game in their favor for the fact that after the third frame, they were 2-1 down but after winning the last two frames they ended the game with a final score of 3-2.
Joseph Casha, who on the first day had lost the first two frames but still recovered to emerge victorious, in his second game against the Danish, Robin Tønnesen looked more focused and precise to register a 3-0 straight forward victory.
The only Maltese who has already been eliminated after the second day is Philip Ciantar. His second loss in a row came against Fergal Quinn from Northern Ireland who defeated Maltese 3-1.
The last match of the second day finished very late. This was the encounter between Brian Cini and the Polish, Michał Kotiuk that had to determine the group winner. Eventually it was the Polish who after a maximum of five frames came out victorious for a final 3-2 scoreline.
On Wednesday the final group stage games will be played and the matches of Maltese players involved, except Philip Ciantar, will determine who will end as a group winner. In the evening the European Billiards & Snooker Association will announce the final classification list of the 86 players that will qualified for the second phase. This phase will played in a knock out format and the last 44 on the final classification have to play against each other so 22 players will qualify to join those 42 who will pass directly to the round of the last 64.
The knock-out phase starts on Thursday. On Friday the last 16 round and the quarter finals will take place and the last three matches of the tournament, the two semi finals and the final will be played on Saturday.
