Cremona beaten in Manchester final
Set to retain no.1 spot in world rankings
Five Maltese players recently took part in the Grand Prix of Manchester.
Samuel Bartolo, Joseph Borg Bonaci, Hansel Mallia and Joseph Mifsud were eliminated in the last 32 stage but Massimo Cremona went all the way to the final where he was beaten by Carlos Flores.
The competition attracted 78 players from 16 different countries. A few months ago, Flores, of Spain, won the FISTF Masters in Malta.
In the final Cremona lost 5-2 after trailing 0-3 at half-time.
After winning his group with relative ease, Cremona went on to beat Austrian Sandner 5-1, Englishman Dave Pawsey 8-1, Austrian Markus Matzinger 6-0 in the quarter-final and Portuguese Sergio Louriero 1-0 in the semi-final.
Despite the upset Cremona is all set to retain his world number one ranking when the new list for January is issued.
Dutchman Eric Verhagen is the provisional runner-up in the rankings.
In the first knockout stage, Bartolo lost to Matzinger 0-1, Borg Bonaci went down to eventual winner Flores 1-4, Mifsud was beaten by Italian Alberto Apollo 1-2 and Mallia lost to Austria's Heinz Heider 2-4.
The next international tournaments will be the Gran Prix of Vervier, in Belgium, and the Major of France.