Aaron Busuttil has made Maltese snooker history after becoming the first player from Malta to win an event on the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) Q Tour.
Busuttil enjoyed a memorable day in Sofia, Bulgaria, on Thursday, producing a series of commanding performances to claim the title and take another significant step towards his ambition of joining the professional ranks.
Launched during the 2021/22 season, the Q Tour provides leading amateur players with a pathway towards earning professional status and securing a place on the World Snooker Tour.
Busuttil arrived at the event in excellent form, having already tasted success at the same venue last Sunday when he won the Six Reds competition organised by the European Billiards & Snooker Association (EBSA).
His Q Tour campaign began on Tuesday, with the Maltese cueist successfully negotiating the opening three rounds to reach Thursday’s decisive stages.
In the quarter-finals, Busuttil defeated Welsh player Riley Powell 4–1 before producing an even more dominant display in the semi-finals, where he swept aside Belgium’s Sybren Sokolowski 4–0.
That set up a final against 17-year-old Englishman Edward Jones, but Busuttil showed no signs of slowing down. The Maltese player completed another impressive 4–0 victory, taking the four frames 72–42, 54–20, 76–42 and 69–21 to secure the historic title.
The victory earned Busuttil 10,000 ranking points and lifted him to second place in the European Q Tour standings, behind Englishman Sanderson Lam, winner of the opening event of the season.
Those points could prove crucial in Busuttil’s pursuit of a place in the Q Tour Global Play-Offs. Following the conclusion of the seven European Q Tour events in Sheffield next February, the leading 16 players will progress to the play-offs.
An even greater prize is available to the player who finishes at the top of the European rankings, with the number one earning professional status and a two-year place on the World Snooker Tour.
Busuttil’s historic success in Sofia therefore represents another major milestone in his pursuit of becoming Malta’s next professional snooker player, following in the footsteps of Tony Drago and Alex Borg, who both represented Malta on the professional circuit.
