Brian Cini continued to underline his potential when he produced a strong potting display to coast into the Last 16 of the European U-21 Snooker Championships at the Dolmen Hotel yesterday.

After securing a seemingly untroubled qualification to the knock-out stages when topping Group B with a perfect four wins out of four, Cini maintained his rich vein of form with a another clinical performance.

The promising cueist was up against Michal Kotiuk, of Poland, in the Last 64.

Cini looked the sharper player for much of the match and he left his best for the fourth frame when he compiled an impressive run of 133 – the highest in the tournament so far – that sealed a comfortable 3-1 victory.

Next up for Cini was Frenchman Yannick Tarillon in a best-of-seven frame match.

Here Cini quickly seized the initiative as he surged into a two-frame lead before Tarillon nicked one back when taking the third frame.

But Cini took little time to step up his potting percentage as he hit breaks of 71 and 80 to take the next two frames and complete a 4-1 victory.

This morning, Cini will be up against Welsh player Tom Rees who reached the last 16 after overcoming home player Shaun Deguara 3-0 and then had the better of Finland’s Olli-Pekka Virho 4-2.

The other Maltese players in the tournament both failed to progress past the Last 64 stage as John Farrugia was beaten by Englishman Louis Heathcote 3-1 while Chris Peplow was beaten by Virho 3-0.

Meanwhile, the tournament reaches its peak today when the two finalists will emerge at the end of the day’s proceedings.

In fact, the remaining players in the tournament could be in action three times today.

The Last 16 matches are scheduled for this morning with the four quarter-finals pencilled for 2pm.

The day’s highlight will be in the evening session when the two semi-finals are played with the winners meeting in the tournament best-of-11 final, tomorrow at 2pm.