Unbeaten Borg hits highest break of tournament – 141

Malta snooker players, Alex Borg, Simon Bezzina and Roberta Cutajar, had a positive start to the 2011 European Championships which are currently being played at the Dedman Princess Hotel in Sofia, Bulgaria.

There are 63 players from 27 countries in the men’s tournament with the top four from each of the eight groups proceeding to the knock-out stages.

In the women’s competition, the 24 participating players were split into four groups of six with the best four in each section qualifying to the next phase.

Borg, the Malta champion, has been in impressive form in Sofia as he won all five matches he played so far in Group B and is on course to booking a berth in the Last 32.

The Mellieħa cueist opened up with a 4-2 win over Hungary’s Zsolt Fenyvesi 4-2 where he compiled his first century of the tournament, a 116. Borg then went on to register comfortable victories over Bulgaria’s Ventislav Daskalov (4-1), Austria’s Paul Schopf (4-0) and Holland’s Maurice Le Duc (4-0).

He then faced Ireland’s Martin McCrudden and cruised to a 4-2 win, in a match where he compiled the highest break of the tournament so far – 141.

Zammit is also in contention to reaching the knock-out phase after chalking up three wins from his opening five matches in Group A.

He had the better of Lithuanian Tomas Puodziunas 4-2, Poland’s Marcin Nitsche 4-2 and Bulgarian Nikola Kemilev 4-2 but lost to Cyprus’s George Louca 4-3 and Shay Arama, of Israel, 4-1.

In the women’s tournament, Cutajar, buoyed by her encouraging display in the European Team Championships held in Malta earlier this year, again underlined her talent after winning all three group matches played so far.

She recorded identical 3-0 wins over Sara Ghyselinak, of Belgium, and Linda Lassaut, of France, and then edged Cyrpus’s Maria Loizou 3-2.

The tournament continues with more qualifying matches today. The final is scheduled for June 17.