The knockout stage of the European Snooker Championship in Gandía, Spain got underway on the fourth day of competition following the conclusion of the group phase earlier in the day.
Maltese player Philip Ciantar, who still needed to secure qualification from his group, delivered a strong performance to advance and later continued his winning run in the play-offs to join Aaron Busuttil and Chris Peplow in the last 64.
In his final group match, Ciantar required just two frames to guarantee qualification but went on to defeat Portugal’s Miguel Ruivo 3-1 with frame scores of 69-2, 60-72, 59-23, 90-10.
However, the play-off draw ended Malta’s hopes of seeing all players progress further, as Philip Ciantar and Joseph Casha were paired against each other, while Brian Cini faced Scotland’s Michael Collumb.
Cini was eliminated after losing 3-1 to Collumb (58-69, 64-27, 49-70, 33-74).
The all-Maltese clash between Ciantar and Casha also ended 3-1. Casha took the opening frame, but Ciantar responded strongly, producing solid performances in the remaining frames to secure victory with scores of 55-38, 44-69, 22-64, 47-66.
As a result, Ciantar advanced to join Busuttil and Peplow in the last 64, with two more rounds scheduled for Thursday – the last 64 and last 32 stages.
The Maltese players in action in the last 64 are:
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10:00 – Aaron Busuttil vs Arturs Kengis (Latvia)
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10:00 – Chris Peplow vs Zachary Richardson (England)
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12:30 – Philip Ciantar vs Iustin Scripei (Romania)
Sports Editor
Veteran Journalist
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